Boeing lays out plan to rebound from 737 MAX, other problems

Boeing Chief Financial Officer Brian West said the company expects to generate about $100 billion in annual sales by 2025 or the next year, a level it hasn’t reported since 2018. The first of two MAX crashes occurred late that year, leading to the biggest crisis in the company’s history.

Boeing Chief Executive David Calhoun said the Arlington, Va.-based aerospace company was determined to move beyond disruptions caused by the MAX crashes, the pandemic and other regulatory and stability problems in recent years and generate returns for shareholders.

“I want nothing more than to return money to you," Mr. Calhoun said during an investor conference at its Seattle airplane delivery center. “This company is big enough, it serves a big enough market—it’s profitable enough to be able to do that, and do that predictably."

The company returned almost $13 billion to shareholders in 2018 in the form of dividends and stock buybacks. On Wednesday, it said it could resume investor payouts as soon as 2026.

The investor event came after Boeing last week reported a $3.3 billion third-quarter loss, driven primarily by charges from various defense-unit programs. Boeing shares settled 2.8% higher Wednesday.

The Boeing executives outlined plans to boost the company’s annual free cash flow, a closely watched financial metric, to about $10 billion by 2025 or 2026.

Executives said they are on track to stop bleeding cash this year for the first time since the MAX crashes, generating as much as $2 billion for 2022. They said Boeing wouldn’t need to raise additional debt or issue new equity as it planned to pay down the $52 billion in bonds and loans it took on to navigate recent years of tumult.

Key to Boeing’s plan in boosting its financial performance is producing and delivering more airplanes. The MAX grounding and separate manufacturing and regulatory problems with its 787 Dreamliner has left the company saddled with scores of both those aircraft in inventory. Mr. West said the company expects to deliver up to 450 of its 737s next year, up from the 375 the company currently expects to hand over in 2022.

Commercial-jetliner chief Stan Deal said supply-chain issues continued to hamper 737 deliveries in October. The company handed over 23 jets to customers last month, fewer than the company’s targeted monthly production rate of 31.

Mr. Deal said two defects related to the fuselage slowed deliveries last month. Executives had been pointing to a shortage of engines as a hurdle to deliveries. Executives said they planned to increase 737 production to around 50 a month by 2025 or 2026.

Mr. Calhoun said Boeing likely wouldn’t introduce an all-new commercial aircraft until the mid-2030s, because the technology needed to develop an advanced new jet isn’t ready.

European rival Airbus SE has been outselling Boeing in the fast-growing segments for aircraft seating around 200 passengers, and some industry officials and analysts have said they believe Boeing’s lack of a new plane puts it at a disadvantage.

The company’s defense business, once an ample source of profit and cash, has also weighed on the business. Boeing has taken around $12 billion in charges over the past six years on programs such as the KC-46A aerial tanker and the VC-25B Air Force One replacement.

The combination of aggressive bids for Pentagon contracts and design and technical problems have left Boeing losing money on many of the programs.