Boeing delivered a first-quarter sales beat on Wednesday.
The plane manufacturer reported revenues of $17.92 billion, an increase of 28% year-over-year, and beat analyst estimates by $360 million.
Adjusted earnings fell short of expectations, however, coming in at -$1.27 per share, missing estimates by 20 cents, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Boeing delivered 130 commercial planes in the quarter, and said it would increase production of its 737 models from 31 to 38 later this year, Boeing CEO David Calhoun said on the earnings call.
Earlier this month, Boeing warned of a possible delay in the production and delivery of a “significant number” of its 737 Max planes due to issues surrounding a supplier’s work on their fuselages, according to AP News.
The supplier, Spirit AeroSystems, used “non-standard manufacturing processes” during the installation of the parts in some 737s, the outlet reported.
Calhoun addressed this issue on the earnings call, saying the problem was isolated to two specific fittings. While it will delay some deliveries in the short term, the company still expects to deliver 450 737s in 2023.
“Unfortunately, the timing of these delivery shortfalls will impact summer capacities for many of our customers, and we feel terrible about that. Deliveries and production will be lower near term, but we will recover over the coming months,” Calhoun said.
Boeing maintained its full-year outlook, including a generation of $3 billion-$5 billion in free cash flow, a key metric that investors use to analyze how much is left over after expenditures and investment spending, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The company has struggled to return to profitability since the crash of two 737 MAX airplanes in 2018 and 2019, which killed 346 and lead to a worldwide grounding of the plane only a year after rolling out the new model. All in all, the tragedy cost Boeing billions of dollars, according to the WSJ.
China has also been a sore point for the company, as Boeing’s CEO stated that its future delivery guidance did not include China. Boeing’s 737 Max 8 plane has been grounded in the country since 2019, and only recently have some of the aircraft been flying in the country, according to CNN.
“Number one, all of our guidance, all of our expectations are predicated on no China. So everything that we’ve discussed by way of production rate, supply constraints and demand in the marketplace does not factor that in, and I want to be clear about that,” Calhoun said.
“On the other hand, we are working very hard to regain China,” he said.
