Agencies
Boeing delivered just 348 commercial planes in 2024 according to figures released Tuesday that showed the ugly effects from a year of labor disruption and safety setbacks.
The annual figure was well below 2023 deliveries and less than half the 766 aircraft European rival Airbus brought to customers last year.
The figures cap a difficult year for the U.S. aviation giant, kicked off by an emergency landing in January 2024 of a 737 MAX flown by Alaska Airlines after the plane suffered a mid-flight blowout on a window panel.
That incident prompted heavy scrutiny on Capitol Hill and from the Federal Aviation Administration, leading to Boeing cutting output on the MAX while it intensified quality control efforts.
Boeing’s operations were also hampered by a more than seven week labor strike in the fall that shuttered two major assembly facilities in the Seattle region. Production did not resume at the plants until mid-December.
Those difficulties meant that Boeing’s gap with Airbus in terms of commercial jet deliveries widened in 2024 to the largest since 2020.
The U.S. company has lagged its European competitor since a pair of fatal MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 plunged Boeing into crisis. Its last annual profit was in 2018.
Getting the company back on track will require Boeing to achieve consistent plane production before ramping up.
In 2025, “the number of planes they produce and deliver is the real thing to watch,” said Morningstar analyst Nicolas Owens. “The hope is that the worst is behind them.” Plane deliveries are tied to company revenues, making them a crucial benchmark for financial performance.Heading into 2024, Boeing appeared to be poised for a financial comeback, with the MAX having returned to the air and flown for more than three years without significant incident.
But the Alaska Airlines episode revived major questions about Boeing’s operations, ultimately leading to a March announcement that David Calhoun would step down as CEO.
In late July, Boeing named as its new CEO former Rockwell Collins boss Kelly Ortberg, who in October unveiled a plan to cut 10 percent of Boeing’s workforce.Ortberg has spoken of the need for a “fundamental culture change” at Boeing that includes resetting the company’s difficult relationship with organized labor, as seen in the bruising Pacific Northwest strike of some 33,000 hourly workers.
After rejecting two earlier offers, workers with the Seattle-based International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751 approved a new contract in early November that includes a 38 percent wage hike.
In the months to come, Ortberg’s company expects to complete an acquisition of Spirit AeroSystems, a major supplier that builds fuselages and other parts for Boeing.
The company will also submit a revised criminal settlement with the U.S. Justice Department over the 737 MAX crashes after a federal judge in Texas rejected a prior proposal.
Boeing may also receive recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board on lessons learned from the Alaska Airlines incident.
