Investors were likely excited that Boeing reported positive operating cash flow of $81 million — only the second quarter in the last three years that the company didn’t use cash. Additionally, the company said it is on track to maintain positive cash flow for the year. It could be the start of a reversal of the cash-burning trend Boeing has faced since the second quarter of 2019, when its 737 Max was grounded after two fatal crashes. In that time Boeing had negative operating cash flow of $24.7 billion. But Boeing could not provide a firm date for resuming deliveries of its 787 Dreamliner planes, which have been halted for more than a year by the Federal Aviation Administration. The company took a $283 million charge in the quarter related to costs associated with that outage, and expects the total cost to reach $2 billion. “While we are making substantial progress, we have more work ahead of us,” said CEO Dave Calhoun. Overall Boeing reported net income of $160 million excluding special charges for the second quarter, down 72% from a year earlier. And although revenue of $16.9 billion was down just 2% from a year earlier, it was $900 million less than analysts had predicted. Adjusted loss came to 37 cents per share for the quarter, excluding special items. That’s far worse than the 14 cents loss forecast by analysts surveyed by Refinitiv and the 40 cents per share earnings it earned a year ago.
Better news for the 737 Max
In other sunnier news for Boeing, the company increased production of the 737 Max to 31 planes a month, up from 26 a month at the end of last year. It also received orders for 169 of the jets during the quarter, including 100 from Delta Air Lines ( DAL ) — the only major US airline that did not previously own the plane. Boeing delivered 103 of its 737 Max jets in the quarter, the most since the FAA ended a 20-month grounding of the jet in November 2020. One of those deliveries was to Ethiopian Airlines, one of two airlines that suffered a fatal crash by plane. Some of Boeing’s customers and major aircraft lessors have sharply criticized Boeing’s recent performance and called for a change in management — most notably Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair, Europe’s largest discount airline. Earlier this year, O’Leary let loose a profanity-laced attack on Boeing during a call with investors, saying its management needed an immediate “reboot, or a boot in the a**.”
