Boeing has been authorized to increase production of the 737 Max. It is its best-selling airliner

Boeing said it has passed a key review by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and received permission to increase production of its main commercial airliner, the 737 Max. The aircraft maker expects that this will help reduce cash outflows and accelerate the fulfillment of its backlog of orders after years of production and regulatory problems. Boeing shares rose by 2.5% at the end of trading on Ma 27.

In coordination with regulators, Boeing will increase production of the 737 Max from the current 42 planes a month to 47, CEO Kelly Ortberg said Wednesday, Ma. 27. It has already begun preparations to ramp up production and should reach that level within the next few months.

After an incident in January 2024, when a door panel broke off on a nearly new Boeing 737 Max on an Alaska Airlines flight, the FAA limited production of this model to 38 airliners per month and raised the ceiling to 42 only in October 2025. The accident was attributed to the quality of production at the supplier and Boeing's failure to detect it in time.

Ortberg said the aircraft maker is now confident in its ability to maintain the high rate of production and plans to reach 52 aircraft monthly - after opening a fourth production line at its Washington state plant early next year, Reuters reports. "I think the whole world is watching now to see if we can produce 47 and 52 aircraft a month," the CEO said.

Although Boeing has previously rolled out as many as 57 airliners a month, Ortberg said the airplane maker is not yet able to sustainably maintain that level given its safety and quality control procedures. But future plans call for expansion. "Someday we would like to reach a pace of 63 airplanes per month and we are counting on that. The market is capable of absorbing such volumes," CNBC quoted Ortberg as saying.

Raising the production cap is a key factor for investors, Barron's notes. ramping up aircraft production is key to Boeing's recovery from a series of crises that led to more than $35 billion in losses in 2019-2024, Reuters recalls. The company expects to reduce cash outflows and fulfill its backlog of orders faster.

According to the agency, production of its other flagship jetliner, the 787 Dreamliner, has returned to eight units per month after a temporary slowdown due to delays in engine deliveries from GE Aerospace. The company hopes to increase production to 10 units by the end of the year.

Boeing delivered 600 airplanes in 2025 - 70% more than in 2024. Meanwhile, the aircraft maker shipped more than 800 airliners to customers in 2018, the year before the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max flight. The company is expected to surpass that peak by 2028, Barron's writes. In the same year, Wall Street expects Boeing's earnings to be about $8 per share and free cash flow to reach $10 billion. These expectations support the company's current valuation, the publication said.

Boeing shares have risen only 3.1% since the beginning of the year, lagging virtually seven percentage points behind the rise in the S&P 500 index. Company quotes are still about 50% below the all-time high of nearly $440 per paper reached in March 2019, Barron's calculated.

Wall Street is optimistic about Boeing's prospects: 23 of the 30 analysts covering the stock recommend buying it. Another six advise to hold the shares and one advises to sell. The growth potential of quotations relative to the average target price of $270 is about 23%.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor