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Dive Brief:
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Boeing’s commercial aircraft deliveries saw a major year-over-year drop in Q4, producing just 57 aircraft compared to 157 planes in Q4 2023.
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The aircraft giant delivered 36 of its 737 aircraft model, as well as three each of its 767s and 777s and 15 787 units. The 64% decrease is a far cry from Boeing’s initial goal of producing 38 planes per month by the end of 2024.
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The troubled company ended a bruising 2024 with only 348 delivered commercial planes, a 34% YOY fall compared to 528 in 2023, according to Boeing’s press release.
Dive Insight:
Gross orders also plunged about 61%, ending the year with 569 compared to 1,456 in 2023, according to Boeing’s website. Net orders after cancelations and conversions totaled 377.
Boeing’s 2024 was full of incidents that stalled its production throughout the year, including a weeks-long workers’ strike. Additionally, it spent billions of dollars to fix quality issues in the wake of the Alaska Airlines 737-9 Max plane door plug blowout incident last year.
Prior to resuming production after the 53-day workers’ strike, which ended Nov. 4, Boeing spent the rest of the month implementing a safety management system at its facilities to establish program-specific plans to identify, evaluate and mitigate potential manufacturing risks.
Boeing's deliveries plummeted about 64% in Q4 2024
The number of commercial planes delivered across four plane models in Q4 2024 compared to Q4 2023.
The company made progress on a host of safety measures, including new random quality audits of documented removals, increased product safety and quality training and added inspections at supplier Spirit AeroSystems’ assembly plants.
Before the strike, Boeing was on its way to achieving its goal of producing 38 planes a month by the end of 2024, a cap imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration. That goal will now take longer to achieve due to the nearly two-month strike workers strike, CFO Brian West said in an October 2024 earnings call.
As of Sept. 30, the company’s losses totaled approximately $8 billion, a 260% year-over-year spike, according to Boeing’s Q3 2024 earnings release. However, the company may incur further losses in Q4 when they report the results on Jan. 28.
There’s also an unresolved criminal case against the aircraft maker. A federal judge rejected Boeing’s plea deal with the Department of Justice last month over charges related to two fatal plane crashes that killed 346 people.