2025 was a ‘good year for the Boeing company’
Mar 17, 2026, 1:00 PM
A Boeing 737 Max jet prepares to land at Boeing Field following a test flight in Seattle, Sept. 30, 2020. (Photo: Elaine Thompson, AP)
(Photo: Elaine Thompson, AP)
After a tumultuous 2024, Boeing had a much better 2025, according to the company’s chief financial officer.
Jay Malave, Boeing’s CFO and executive vice president, said 2025 was a “good year for the Boeing Company.”
“The business, I think, is doing quite well,” Malave said Tuesday. “It was foundational, while at the same time, a year of pretty significant progress in the company’s recovery.”
In 2025, Boeing Commercial Airplanes delivered 600 aircraft — the most since 2018.
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Boeing continues to recover from a machinist strike that halted production for weeks in 2024, as well as a door‑plug blowout on an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 in January of that year. Since that incident, Boeing’s manufacturing quality has been under scrutiny.
Boeing expects to deliver more than 500 737 aircraft this year, supported by plans to increase the production rate from 42 to 47 jets per month around midyear, Malave said. The company also plans to begin building 737s at a second facility in Everett this summer.
Boeing reacquired Spirit AeroSystems last year, after a 20-year separation. Since then, defect rates have dropped 40% in early 2026 compared with 2025 performance levels, Malave said.
“Really good performance there at Spirit as well,” he said.
Boeing resumed 737 deliveries last week after a brief pause triggered by a wiring issue traced to improperly calibrated machinery. About 25 aircraft will require roughly three days of rework each, Malave said. Boeing had planned to deliver 120 737s in the first quarter, but 10 of them will be delivered in Q2.
“Production really didn’t change. It continued. It was not a safety of flight issue at all,” Malave said.
The company’s total backlog stands at $682 billion, with more than $560 billion at the commercial airplanes division alone.
Boeing’s delayed certification programs for the 737 MAX 7 and MAX 10 variants remain on track for approval in the second half of this year, with deliveries beginning in 2027, Malave said. Flight testing should conclude this summer.
The 777X widebody program, reset in the third quarter of 2025, is targeting certification and first deliveries in 2027. Boeing plans to eventually produce five 777X jets per month.
Boeing’s defense unit is expected to return to positive margins this year, Malave said. The defense backlog stands at a record $85 billion against roughly $27 billion in annual revenue.
Malave firmly ruled out any near-term launch of a new aircraft program.
“Number one, the market has to be ready. Number two, the technology has to be ready, and number three, the Boeing company has to be ready,” he said. “None of those three are in a place that we believe would come anywhere close to supporting a launch of a new aircraft. That day will come, but it’s not anytime soon.”
Frank Lenzi is the News Director for KIRO Newsradio. Read more of his stories here.
