Boeing Records 44 June
Deliveries As 737s Show Uptick

Boeing delivered 44 aircraft in June, easily its best month of the year, with the 737 and 777 freighter program showing improvements while 787s continued to lag due to lingering supply-chain issues.

Last month’s handovers included 34 737 MAXs—the most it has delivered in a month in 2024. Counting June’s totals, Boeing had 175 deliveries at the mid-year mark and is averaging 29 deliveries per month in 2024, including 23 737s.

Airbus handed over 323 aircraft in the first six months, or 54 per month. Of these, 261 have been Airbus A320neo-family variants.

While Boeing’s June figures are encouraging, they are not a sign that the company’s commercial production is steadily increasing. Boeing’s delivery figures often rise in the month before quarterly earnings reports. The company is slated to release its second-quarter earnings on July 31. Boeing also is battling both supply-chain and internal headwinds as it seeks to stabilize and then increase output.

Boeing is changing some 737 inspection and production protocols and expects the shift to slow throughput until sometime around mid-year. Boeing’s June deliveries reflected this, as 15 of the 34 deliveries were aircraft that rolled out before Jan. 1. Included in the delivery totals were five aircraft completed in 2019, during the delivery pause linked to the 737 MAX grounding and one in 2018, the Aviation Week Network Fleet Discovery database shows.

The company’s notional monthly 737 rate is in the low 30s, with plans to increase to its agreed-upon limit of 38 sometime around year-end. Actual production is in the low to mid-20s—a reflection of the production quality changes prompted by January’s Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 door plug blowout and related FAA scrutiny.

One of the 737 MAXs handed over was a Boeing Business Jet version based on the 737-8 for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), the Aviation Week Network Fleet Discovery database shows. The RAAF has ordered two to replace two 737-700-based models in service.

Boeing also placed five 777 freighters after having delivered just two since December 2023.

Deliveries of 787s remained slow, with only three last month and 22 for the first six months of the year. Delays in sourcing interior components and heat exchangers are expected to affect deliveries into 2025, Boeing has said.

Company executives insist their near-term focus is on stabilizing production and hitting recently established quality metrics targets, not meeting monthly delivery figures. Its most recent guidance, delivered in November 2022, listed 2025-2026 delivery figures that require monthly production rates of 10 787s and 50 737s. While the company has not changed these, it has acknowledged 737 production will reach 50 sometime in that two-year window, not before.

Boeing booked 14 gross orders in June, including five 777Fs and two 737 MAXs for unidentified customers.