Boeing expects a 2024 cash burn, slow recovery of airplane deliveries amid crisis, CFO says

Boeing will burn through cash this year and deliveries of new planes won't improve in the second quarter from the first, as the manufacturer deals with a host of production challenges tied to its bestselling planes, the company's CFO, Brian West, said Thursday.

A month ago, West forecast Boeing would generate free cash flow "in the low single-digit billions." The new forecast shows the mounting costs of the plane maker's latest crises.

Boeing burned through nearly $4 billion in cash in the first quarter and West said that figure could be similar or "possibly a little worse" in the second quarter, but that the company would likely return to generating cash in the second half of 2024.

The company's aircraft deliveries in the first quarter fell to the lowest level since the pandemic. The bulk of a plane's price is paid when it's handed over to a customer.

Boeing's shares were down 7% in afternoon trading after West's comments at a Wolfe Research industry conference.

"We have frustrated and disappointed our customers because of some of the production supply chain issues that we're up against," West said at the conference. "And while I understand that frustration, the most important thing we can do for our customers and the supply chain in the industry is to focus on the actions that are underway as we speak so that we could stabilize this production system, improve quality, and get more predictable."

Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun in March said he would step down by the end of the year, and the company replaced the chairman and chief executive of its commercial airplane unit. Leading up to the shake-up, CEOs of major airline customers complained about delivery delays and difficulty planning flights because of surprise disruptions.

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