Boeing’s Uneven Recovery

Boeing is hitting milestones again, but it is still acting like a company short on breathing room. On January 27, 2026, Boeing said it delivered 600 commercial airplanes in 2025, posted $89.5 billion in annual revenue, and generated just $0.4 billion in fourth-quarter free cash flow. (boeing.com) The center of the story is the Boeing 737 MAX, which is Boeing’s cash machine when it runs smoothly. In the third quarter of 2025, Boeing said 737 production had stabilized at 38 a month and that the Federal Aviation Administration agreed in October 2025 to let it rise to 42 a month. (boeing.com) Boeing is now building a new 737 MAX line in Everett, Washington, for the first time outside its long-time Renton factory. Boeing said this “North Line” will open in summer 2026 and will be able to build all 737 MAX models, starting with the 737-8, 737-9, and 737-10. (boeing.com) That sounds like expansion, but the timing tells you something else too. Boeing’s own Everett update says the new line is meant to expand single-aisle capacity, while outside reporting says the ramp to 47 planes a month has slipped into 2027 as Boeing works through training, quality controls, and Federal Aviation Administration stability requirements. (boeing.com) (simpleflying.com) The other big airplane in the picture is the Boeing 777-9, a larger long-haul jet that Boeing has been trying to finish for years. Boeing said in October 2025 that a $4.9 billion charge was tied to updated 777X certification timing even as the company kept flying a five-aircraft test fleet and still targeted first delivery in 2026. (boeing.com 1) (boeing.com 2) Space is one of the few places where Boeing can point to a clean recent win. On April 7, 2026, Boeing said it delivered the ViaSat-3 Flight 3 satellite to Cape Canaveral after integration and testing in El Segundo, California, ahead of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch. (boeing.com) Defense work is helping keep money coming in while commercial aviation recovers. Boeing also picked up a United States Air Force sustainment award tied to the T-38 Talon trainer fleet, and the Air Force has said the broader repair and maintenance effort is meant to keep producing about 1,500 fighter and bomber pilots a year with safe, reliable aircraft. (afmc.af.mil) (af.mil) The financial problem is that Boeing still does not look like a company ready to pay for a brand-new jet program out of current cash generation. In July 2025, Boeing reported debt of $53.3 billion and cash plus marketable securities of $23.0 billion, and even after asset-sale proceeds lifted cash to $29.4 billion in January 2026, investors were still looking at a balance sheet shaped by years of borrowing. (boeing.com 1) (boeing.com 2) That is why analysts keep coming back to the same question: can the 737 MAX throw off enough cash to fund Boeing’s next airplane. Recent market analysis has argued that the answer is still not convincing because Boeing needs several steady quarters of stronger delivery volume before investors will believe a multibillion-dollar development program is affordable. (finance.yahoo.com) Inside the factories, Boeing is also dealing with a more basic problem: workers saying the clock does not match the job. A proposed class action filed in Washington this week says employees spent 10 to 20 unpaid minutes a day parking, walking to work areas, getting equipment, and putting on safety gear, and one local report says roughly 5,000 current and former hourly or non-exempt workers could be eligible. (king5.com) (heraldnet.com) So Boeing in April 2026 looks like a company doing three things at once. It is reopening production muscle in Everett, finishing expensive old programs like the 777-9, and leaning on defense and space contracts for stability, while the one program that has to fund the future — the 737 MAX — still has not produced enough clean, repeatable cash to end the argument. (boeing.com 1) (boeing.com 2) (finance.yahoo.com)