Boeing on Wednesday reported a big loss for the three months ending in September, but it said other measures of its performance had improved.
The company is increasing production of the 737 Max, its best-selling plane. Boeing also reported more than $23 billion of revenue in the quarter, better than many analysts had expected. And it reported positive free cash flow for the first time since 2023, which investors closely track because it represents the money left after paying for operation and capital expenses.
The company lost $5.3 billion in the third quarter, compared with a loss of $6.1 billion in the same period last year. The loss in the recent quarter was driven primarily by a charge for delaying delivery of a new jet, the 777-9, to 2027.
“Our sustained focus on safety and quality is driving better performance, while our culture change is improving how we work,” Kelly Ortberg, the chief executive of Boeing, said in a message to employees on Wednesday.
Analysts said that the size of the 777-9 charge was disappointing, but that they were encouraged by the company’s overall direction.
“Boeing’s third-quarter results demonstrate the continuation of meaningful operational progress,” said Ryan O’Loughlin, a director at Fitch Ratings. He and others said they would judge the company’s success by, among other things, its ability to safely increase commercial jet production and deliveries.
Mr. Ortberg, a veteran industry executive, took the top job at Boeing last summer amid a crisis at the company that started when a panel blew off a 737 Max during a January 2024 flight. No one was seriously injured, but the incident renewed concerns about the quality of the company’s planes. Mr. Ortberg was charged with restoring the company’s reputation and production system.
He appears to be making headway.
In September, the Federal Aviation Administration said it was restoring Boeing’s ability to issue the final sign-off on some Max and 787 Dreamliner jets. The agency had revoked that permission in 2019 for the Max after two fatal crashes of the plane, and in 2022 for the 787 because of production quality concerns. The Max crashes plunged the company into one of the worst crises in its history.
In October, the F.A.A. said it would raise the limit on how many 737 Max planes Boeing could build — a cap put in place after last year’s panel episode. The company had stabilized production of the plane at 38 per month in the third quarter, which was the previous limit, and plans to end the year at 42 per month.
After that, the company plans to increase monthly production by five jets each half-year, as long as quality remains steady, Mr. Ortberg said on Wednesday on a conference call with investors and analysts. Boeing is also working to accelerate production of the 787, with an increase from seven to eight per month expected soon.
“We will remain disciplined, and we won’t move to higher rates until we achieve stability and readiness,” he said.
After the panel episode, Boeing made changes to improve production quality, including limiting work performed out of sequence, known as “traveled work.” That work has been reduced by 75 percent on 737 production and 60 percent across all planes, Mr. Ortberg said.
The company delivered 160 commercial jets in the three months ending in September, the most of any quarter since 2018. It also booked as many new orders.
But Boeing still has many problems ahead. The company reported a $4.9 billion charge in the quarter related to the 777-9, a large jet designed to fly long distances. Boeing faces a “mountain of work” on the 777-9, Mr. Ortberg said at an investor conference last month. The plane was once scheduled for delivery in 2020 and has accumulated billions of dollars in unexpected expenses over the years. It has yet to be certified for commercial flights by the F.A.A.
“We very much underestimated how much work it was going to take” to get the agency’s approvals, Mr. Ortberg said on the call. Boeing also expects the smallest and largest Max variants, the Max 7 and Max 10, to be certified next year.
Mr. Ortberg said in the message to employees that the company was also “effectively executing” a contingency plan for a monthslong strike of several thousand workers in St. Louis who make fighter jets and other military equipment. The production of Joint Direct Attack Munitions, which turn unguided bombs into smart weapons, remains steady, he said.
Niraj Chokshi is a Times reporter who writes about aviation, rail and other transportation industries.
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