Spurring the Cash Cow

Aerospace titan Boeing plans to up production of its ubiquitous 737 family of narrow-body airliners from 31 to 38-specimens monthly by the end of 2023’s second quarter—well earlier than aerospace industry analysts predicted.

In addition to hiring and training workers to support its ambitious manufacturing objectives, the Arlington, Virginia by way of Chicago, Illinois, by way of Seattle, Washington plane-maker has quietly briefed a worldwide customer-base of its plans to ramp-up output of its bread-and-butter aircraft over the coming months.

Analysts posit Boeing, by accelerating production and deliveries of its 737-MAX aircraft family, has devised a means by which to contemporaneously reach its target of $10-billion in yearly free cash flow by 2026 and not give up market share to European rival Airbus.

Following a 30 March 2023 address to New York’s Wings Club, Boeing Commercial Airplanes president and CEO Stan Deal advised reporters production rate increases were in the works and would be actualized “very soon.”

On Thursday, 06 April 2023, news of the planned production hike reversed a decline in the value of Boeing shares and sent the individual stock price rising 0.5-percent $211.07, thereby pairing an earlier gain of 1.1-percent.

Boeing stock has gained ten-percent in 2023.

Over the last year, Boeing has worked to maintain a stable monthly output of 31 737-MAX jets from its plant adjacent Renton, Washington’s Renton Municipal Airport (RNT). The storied OEM—beleaguered by years of upheaval occasioned by the worldwide grounding of the 737-MAX fleet, regulatory entanglements, and supply-chain disruptions ascribed to the COVID madness—has more recently contended with shortages of engines and cabin equipment while striving to make journeymen workers of greenhorn new-hires.

Boeing is slated to disclose its March 2023 aircraft deliveries during the week beginning 09 April. Aircraft industry pundits expect the report to reflect a surge in 737-MAX handovers—a sign of stabilization at the company’s aircraft production facilities. Forecasters at Jefferies LLC predict Boeing will report 53 737-MAX deliveries in March 2023 and a total of 130 jets delivered over the year’s first quarter.

Boeing’s planned production increase is wholly contingent upon the company’s suppliers continuing to effectively manage their own factories and maintain the production levels thereof.

In February 2023, executives at Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc., the Wichita-based aerospace firm by which the aluminum frames of Boeing’s 737-MAX aircraft are manufactured, set forth that the company plans to increase output—in accordance with an agreement struck with Boeing—to a 38-jet-per-month pace by August, and a 42-jet-per-month pace by October. Spirit AeroSystems, a longtime Boeing partner, is the world’s largest first-tier aerostructures manufacturer.

Boeing subcontractors adhere to production schedules that vary based on inventory previously delivered to Boeing’s production plants in Renton and Everett, Washington and North Charleston, South Carolina. Ergo, strain on aerospace manufacturers will most certainly adversely affect Boeing’s 737-MAX production objectives.

FMI: www.boeing.com