Boeing reported an annual loss of $11.83 billion on Tuesday, its largest since 2020, as it faced ongoing issues in both its commercial and defense units, as well as the repercussions of a crippling strike by U.S. West Coast factory workers.
The loss demonstrates the challenges facing CEO Kelly Ortberg in turning around the U.S. planemaker as it cedes ground to rival Airbus in the delivery race and comes under the crosshairs of regulators and customers following a series of missteps, News.Az reports, citing Reuters.Shares of Boeing rose 0.5% in pre-market trading.
The company reported a quarterly cash burn of $4.1 billion, a metric closely watched by investors, slightly lower than analysts' expectation of a $4.26-billion cash burn, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Ortberg, who took the helm of the planemaker in August, said the company was making progress on restoring stability to its struggling production lines after a harrowing mid-air accident a year ago raised concerns about the safety of its jets.
The company reported a loss of $3.86 billion in the fourth quarter due to what Ortberg called "disappointing" charges in several fixed-price defense programs. Ortberg, however, added in a letter to employees on Tuesday that Boeing was "now more proactive and clear-eyed on the risks" to the programs.
Revenue for the quarter through December fell 31% to $15.24 billion, missing analysts' expectation of $16.21 billion, according to LSEG data.
Quarterly adjusted loss per share was $5.90, compared with expectations of a $3 loss per share.
Cash burn was $14.3 billion in 2024, compared with a cash flow of $4.43 billion in 2023.
Ortberg reiterated the company's four-part plan to turn the business around, including a multi-year effort to fix Boeing's culture, "perhaps the most important change we need to make."
After banking record-high profits in the 2010s, Boeing has bled more than $30 billion since 2019 after two fatal crashes of its best-selling 737 MAX jet triggered production quality and safety concerns and worries that it had misled regulators during the plane's certification process.
The pandemic further squeezed the company, while the mid-air panel blowout on a nearly new 737 MAX last January dragged Boeing into another crisis.
The company's defense, space & security business lost $5.41 billion in 2024, hit by overruns on several fixed-price programs.
"We have completed deep dives on all of our challenging fixed-price development programs," Ortberg said in the letter to employees.
Ortberg added Boeing has made progress with smoothing its supply chain and returned to an output rate of five 787 jets per month at the end of 2024, despite delays in areas like seats.
Boeing's commercial planes division, now focused on getting three of its models certified, has a good handle on fixing a thrust link issue uncovered on its 777X widebody, which resumed flight tests this month, he added.
Ortberg was guarded in his message about the status of solving problems with anti-icing systems on the 737-7 and -10 models. The company is "still working through the testing phase, focusing on finalization of the anti-icing design solution," he said.
The company continues to invest in core businesses, while "streamlining our portfolio in areas that are not core to our future," he said.
