FAA chief Steve Dickson flies a Boeing 737 MAX, from Boeing Field on September 30, 2020 in Seattle, Washington.
Mike Siegel | Getty Images
After spiraling from crisis to crisis over much of the past seven years, Boeing is stabilizing under CEO Kelly Ortberg’s leadership.
Ortberg, a longtime aerospace executive and an engineer whom the manufacturer plucked from retirement to repair the problem-addled company last 12 months, is ready this week to stipulate significant progress since he took the helm a 12 months ago. Boeing reports quarterly results and provides its outlook on Tuesday.
Thus far, investors are liking what they have been seeing. Shares of the corporate are up greater than 30% to this point this 12 months.
Wall Street analysts expect the aircraft manufacturer to halve its second-quarter losses from a 12 months ago when it reports. Ortberg told investors in May that the manufacturer expects to generate money within the second half of the 12 months. Boeing’s aircraft production has increased, and its airplane deliveries just hit the very best level in 18 months.
Boeing’s stock price.
It is a shift for Boeing, whose successive leaders missed targets on aircraft delivery schedules, certifications, financial goals and culture changes that frustrated investors and customers alike, while rival Airbus pulled ahead.
“The final agreement is that the culture is changing after many years of self-inflicted knife wounds,” said Richard Aboulafia, managing director at AeroDynamic Advisory, an aerospace consulting firm.
Analysts expect the corporate to post its first annual profit since 2018 next 12 months.
“When he got the job, I used to be not anywhere as near as optimistic as today,” said Douglas Harned, senior aerospace and defense analyst at Bernstein.
Kelly Ortberg speaks on the 14th annual U.S. Chamber Of Commerce Foundation Aviation Summit in downtown Washington, D.C.
Kris Tripplaar | SIPPL Sipa USA | AP
Ortberg’s work was already cut out for him, however the challenges multiplied when he arrived.
As the corporate hemorrhaged money, Ortberg announced massive cost cuts, including shedding 10% of the corporate. Its machinists who make the vast majority of its airplanes went on strike for seven weeks until the corporate and the employees’ union signed a brand new labor deal. Ortberg also oversaw a greater than $20 billion capital raise last fall, replaced the top of the defense unit and sold off its Jeppesen navigation business.
Ortberg bought a house within the Seattle area, where Boeing makes most of its planes, shortly after taking the job last August, and his presence has been positive, aerospace analysts have said.
“He’s showing up,” Aboulafia said. “You show up, you refer to people.”
Boeing declined to make Ortberg available for an interview.
One other turnaround
The Boeing Co. pavilion on the Paris Air Show in Paris, France, on Wednesday, June 18, 2025.
Nathan Laine | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Key bolts were left off the plane before it was delivered to Alaska Airlines. It was the newest in a series of quality problems at Boeing, where other defects have required time-consuming reworking.
Boeing had already been reeling from two deadly Max crashes in 2018 and 2019 that sullied the status of America’s largest exporter. The corporate in May reached an agreement with the Justice Department to avoid prosecution stemming from a battle over a previous criminal conspiracy charge tied to the crashes. Victims’ relations slammed the deal when it was announced.
For years, executives at top Boeing airline customers complained publicly concerning the manufacturer and its leadership as they grappled with delays. Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary told investors in May 2022 that management needed a “reboot or boot up the arse.”
Last week, O’Leary had a unique tune.
“I proceed to consider Kelly Ortberg, [and Boeing Commercial Airplane unit CEO] Stephanie Pope are doing a fantastic job,” he said on an earnings call. “I mean, there isn’t any doubt that the standard of what’s being produced, the hulls in Wichita and the aircraft in Seattle has dramatically improved.”
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby solid doubt over the Boeing 737 Max 10 after the January 2024 door-plug accident, because the carrier prepared to not have that aircraft in its fleet plan. The plane remains to be not certified, but Kirby has said Boeing has been more predictability on airplane deliveries.
Still, delays for the Max 10, the biggest of the Max family, and the yet-to-be certified Max 7, the smallest, are a headache for purchasers, especially since having too few or too many seats on a flight can determine profitability for airlines.
“They’re working the precise problems. The consistency of deliveries is significantly better,” Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan said in an interview last month. “But there is no update on the Max 7. We’re assuming we should not flying it in 2026.”
Not out of the woods
Airplane fuselages certain for Boeing’s 737 Max production facility await shipment at Spirit AeroSystems headquarters in Wichita, Kansas, U.S. December 10, 2024.Â
Nick Oxford | Reuters
Boeing under Ortberg still has much to repair.
The FAA capped Boeing’s production at 38 Maxes a month, a rate that it has reached. To transcend that, to a goal of 42, Boeing will need the FAA’s blessing.
Ortberg said this 12 months that the corporate is stabilizing to transcend that rate. Manufacturers receives a commission when aircraft are delivered, so higher production is vital.
“I might suspect they’d be having those discussions very soon,” Harned said. “It’s 47 [a month] that I feel is the difficult break.”
He added that Boeing has loads of inventory readily available to assist increase production.
Its defense unit has also suffered. The defense unit encompasses programs just like the KC-46 tanker program and Air Force One, which has drawn public ire from President Donald Trump. Trump, frustrated with delays on the 2 latest jets meant to serve the president, turned to a used Qatari Boeing 747 to potentially use as a presidential aircraft, though insiders say that used plane could require months of reoutfitting.
Ortberg replaced the top of that unit last fall.
“They are not totally out of the woods,” Harned said.
Boeing and Ortberg also need to begin interested by a brand new jet, some industry members said. Its best-selling 737 first debuted in 1967, and the corporate was taking a look at a midsize jetliner before the 2 crashes sent its attention elsewhere.
“Already there’s been a reversal from ‘read my lips, no latest jet.’ I would love to see that speed up,” Aboulafia said. “He’s the guy to make that occur.”
