By Dan Catchpole and Nathan Gomes
March 17 (Reuters) - Boeing expects its commercial airplane division to turn a profit in 2027, not this year as previously expected due to higher-than-expected costs of its purchase of parts supplier Spirit AeroSystems, its chief financial officer said on Tuesday, in a new setback for the U.S. planemaker.
The commercial airplane division lost $632 million in 2025 and $2.1 billion in 2024.
The company expects to increase production of its popular 737 MAX jet from roughly
42 aircraft a month to 47 a month by year's end and to deliver about 500 of the jets this year, Chief Financial Officer Jay Malave said at the Bank of America Global Industrials Conference in London.
The single-aisle jet is critical to Boeing's financial recovery. Planemakers receive the majority of cash from customers when they deliver new aircraft.
Deliveries in the first quarter were slightly hampered by damage to wiring on about 25 737s, but fixing the problem only required a few more days of work and will not hurt annual deliveries, Malave said.
Boeing shares were down 1% in early trading, continuing a 13% slide in the past month.
Malave said Boeing does not plan to develop a new jetliner anytime soon.
Boeing’s first-quarter 787 Dreamliner deliveries will be down slightly from a projected 20 aircraft to about 15 of the popular widebody jet, mostly due to delays certifying premium-class seat designs, he said.
"The premium seating has been challenging," he said. "Those are very strict, rigorous types of certifications."
The planemaker wants to increase 787 production from its current rate of eight Dreamliners per month to 10 by the end of 2026. The company is expanding its 787 assembly plant in North Charleston, South Carolina.
(Reporting by Dan Catchpole in Seattle; editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Rod Nickel)
