Boeing first-quarter jet deliveries dip to lowest since mid-2021

Boeing deliveries in the first quarter were the lowest since mid-2021, highlighting how far the plane-maker has to go on its road to recovery from a near-catastrophic incident early in January.

The company handed over 29 aircraft in March, a slight improvement from the 27 delivered in each of the first two months of the year, for a total of 83 in the quarter. The majority of those planes were 737 Max jets, underscoring that model’s importance for Boeing’s bottom line.

Boeing has slowed the pace of work on the 737 family to give workers and suppliers breathing room to catch up on damaged or missing parts and get its production lines back in order. The steps are part of a broader effort to bolster the quality of its workmanship after a unnerving near-miss in January involving an airborne 737 Max that lost a large fuselage panel.

“We won’t rush or go too fast,” Boeing chief financial officer Brian West said at an analyst conference last month. “In fact we’re deliberately going slow to get this right.”

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US regulators have capped narrowbody output at a 38-jet monthly pace until they are satisfied the quality measures have taken root. But production continues to be well below that level, with Boeing delivering just 24 737s in March. Still, that figure is an improvement from February, when it only handed over 18 of the jets.

In the quarter Boeing delivered 16 wide-body jets, but none of its 777 freighters. Bloomberg reported earlier that the plane-maker has been grappling with a shortfall in supplies, including the General Electric Co-made engines.

Orders rebounded during the month even with Boeing’s manufacturing travails, a reminder that demand is booming for new aircraft with output constrained at both Boeing and rival Airbus.

The US company booked 113 gross orders against two cancellations in March. The tally included 85 Max 10 aircraft for American Airlines, eight 777X passenger jets for Ethiopian Airlines and another 20 of the hulking twin-aisle jets for an unidentified customer. Five jets were also removed from its backlog under US accounting rules for at-risk orders, although the deals remain on Boeing’s books.

Boeing tallied 131 gross orders during the first quarter, and 125 net orders including cancellations and the accounting adjustment. The company holds an order backlog of 5,591 aircraft. – Bloomberg