By Dan Catchpole and Nathan Gomes
March 17 (Reuters) – Boeing expects its commercial airplane division to turn a profit in 2027, not this year as previously expected due to higher-than-expected costs of its purchase of parts supplier Spirit AeroSystems, its chief financial officer said on Tuesday, in a new setback for the U.S. planemaker.
Boeing’s commercial airplane division will likely post an operating margin loss of 7.5% to 8% in the first quarter, he said. The division lost $632 million in 2025 and $2.1 billion in 2024.
The company expects to increase production of its popular 737 MAX jet from roughly 42 aircraft a month to 47 a month by year’s end and to deliver about 500 of the jets this year, Chief Financial Officer Jay Malave said at the Bank of America Global Industrials Conference in London.
The single-aisle jet is critical to Boeing’s financial recovery. Planemakers receive the majority of cash from customers when they deliver new aircraft.
Deliveries in the first quarter were slightly hampered by damage to wiring on about 25 737s, but fixing the problem only required a few more days of work and will not hurt annual deliveries, Malave said.
SHARES CONTINUE SLIDE
Boeing shares were down 1.8% around midday, continuing a 13% slide in the past month.
Malave said Boeing does not plan to introduce another new jetliner anytime soon, saying neither airlines, new technology, nor Boeing itself is ready for a new airplane model.
The commercial airplane division is focused on stabilizing and increasing jetliner production, and certifying and delivering the 737-7 and -10 models and the 777-9, the first model of its new 777X jet.
Adopting a new airplane model requires high one-time costs for airlines, and there is no new technology that justifies those costs, said Robert Mann, aviation analyst and principal at R.W. Mann and Company.
The latest generation of engines has, in general, proven more problematic and inefficient than expected, he said.
They have required maintenance sooner than anticipated, and for some engines, particularly Pratt & Whitney’s geared turbofan, major maintenance is taking longer than planned, Mann said.
That has put pressure on the engine supply chain to keep up with demand for aftermarket spare parts and new engines.
Regarding plans to increase jetliner output, Malave said Boeing is monitoring the engine supply chain, particularly the tension between demand for aftermarket parts and original equipment.
Boeing’s first-quarter 787 Dreamliner deliveries will be down slightly from a projected 20 aircraft to about 15 of the popular widebody jet, mostly due to delays certifying premium-class seat designs, he said.
“Premium seating has been challenging,” he said. “Those are very strict, rigorous types of certifications.”
The planemaker wants to increase 787 production from its current rate of eight Dreamliners per month to 10 by the end of 2026. The company is expanding its 787 assembly plant in North Charleston, South Carolina.
(Reporting by Dan Catchpole in Seattle and Nathan Gomes in Bengaluru; editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Rod Nickel)
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