Boeing deliveries this year keep up with pre-blowout rates

Miami Herald

09-04-2025

Boeing delivered 41 airplanes last month, bringing its total deliveries for the first quarter of the year to 130, the company said Tuesday.
That's in line with its performance for the first two months of this year and the same time period in 2023, before an in-flight safety incident at the start of 2024 upended Boeing's production cycle and plunged the company into financial and reputational uncertainty.
More than a year ago, on Jan. 5, 2024, a panel blew off a Boeing 737 Max 9 plane while the aircraft was climbing into the air, leaving a hole in the side of the plane.
In the first three months of 2024, shortly after the panel blowout, Boeing delivered just 83 planes. In the first three months this year, as Boeing continues on its path to recovery, the company delivered 130 aircraft, matching the exact number of deliveries from the same time period in 2023.
Boeing has kept its delivery rate above 40 airplanes per month so far this year, recording 45 deliveries in January, 44 in February and 41 in March.
Separately, Boeing booked 192 gross orders in March, a sharp increase from the first two months of the year and significantly higher than the monthly March average of 78 orders.
Boeing booked 36 net new orders in January this year and 13 in February. All of the February orders were for the 737 Max.
The March orders include 88 orders for the 737 Max, 53 orders for the 787 and 51 orders for the 777 family.
The data Boeing released Tuesday does not include any potential impacts from President Donald Trump's tariffs, announced on April 2. The impact of those tariffs could appear later, though the company has said it does not expect it will be severely affected by the new duties because it sources a lot of parts from inside the U.S. and has a significant stock of inventory that it can rely on if needed.
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said last week at a Congressional hearing related to the panel blowout that 80% of the commercial airplanes Boeing delivers are sent outside of the United States so 'free trade is very important to us.'
Analysts, meanwhile, are concerned about the impact of tariffs on the aerospace industry overall, which relies heavily on a worldwide supply chain.
Agency Partners, a research firm based in the United Kingdom, said in a Monday note that 'such international dependency cannot be engineered out quickly, or perhaps ever.'
If the tariffs remain in place as is, the note continued, 'this could be more disruptive to aircraft manufacturing than the pandemic.'
Deliveries
Of the 41 deliveries last month, 33 were 737 Maxes, Boeing said Tuesday.
That's inching closer to the Federal Aviation Administration's production cap of 38 Max planes per month. But some of those 33 Maxes delivered in March may have been aircraft that were nearly done and waiting in the factory for some time before rolling out to customers. Boeing doesn't disclose the breakdown of those planes so it's hard to tell exactly how close Boeing is to the 38 per month threshold.
Ortberg reiterated again this month that the company would not seek permission to move the production rate above 38 planes per month until it was sure it could do so safely, using a series of metrics it laid out in a safety and quality plan submitted to the FAA.
'I'm not pressuring the team to go fast. I'm pressuring the team to do it right,' Ortberg said at a hearing before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation to discuss company changes since the panel blowout.
Of the 33 Max planes delivered last month, Southwest and United both received six, while Alaska, American and aircraft leasing company BOC Aviation each received three.
In March, Boeing also delivered four 787s and four 777 freighters.
So far this year, Boeing has delivered 105 planes from the 737 family, including 104 Maxes, as well as 13 787 planes, five 767s and seven 777s.
Orders
Adjusting for strict accounting standards that move orders in and out of Boeing's extensive backlog and 29 cancellations, the company booked 161 net orders.
Its backlog grew from 5,528 at the end of February to 5,648 as of March 31st.
Of the 192 gross orders booked in March, BOC Aviation ordered 50 Max planes and Japan Airlines ordered 17. The other 21 Max orders are unidentified.
Korean Air placed an order for 20 777X planes and 20 787 widebodies. FedEx ordered eight 777 freighters. The remaining orders - three 777 freighters, 20 777X and 33 787s - are unidentified.
Through the end of March, Boeing recorded 241 gross orders. Adjusting for accounting standards and cancellations, it booked 221 net orders.
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