Boeing delivered its fewest planes in two years

Boeing’s orders and deliveries page on its website says that the company delivered 24 planes to customers last month — the fewest since February 2022. Sixteen of those deliveries were the troubled 737 Max models. While the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) says Boeing can only make 38 of them a month, Reuters reported in April that it has struggled to make even 10 in that timeframe.

There’s a lot more scrutiny on the planemaker’s operations since a January incident in which the door plug blew out on an Alaska Airlines-operated 737 Max 9 jet. The fallout has sent Boeing’s stock down nearly 30% for the year and led to CEO Dave Calhoun announcing that he’ll be retiring at the end of the year. Proxy adviser Glass Lewis doesn’t think he should even be on the board anymore.

That low mark is ironic for a few reasons. First, it came when Boeing was ramping up production for its 737 Max program after the last crisis with the planes; a pair of fatal crashes in 2019 grounded the 737 Max 8 version for more than a year and a half. The Justice Department said Tuesday that Boeing may have violated a resulting deferred prosecution agreement after the Alaska Airlines incident. That exposes Boeing to a new level of legal exposure because the agency is investigating as a criminal matter.

Secondly, the reason that deliveries were so few that month is because Boeing had to majorly slow down its 787 Dreamliner production amid quality issues. Recently, a whistleblower testified to the Senate that those planes still have serious flaws that could lead to them ripping apart in midair, though Boeing stands behind them. Still, the FAA is investigating that model as well.