After a bruising safety crisis, leadership churn, and union battles, Wall Street is betting that Boeing’s new CEO can steer a slow-moving turnaround.
- Since Ortberg took over, Boeing stock has reclaimed $200 and gained ~16% YTD, helped by marquee defense wins and a steady drumbeat of commercial orders.
- The company is still wrestling with FAA scrutiny, supply-chain snarls, and labor unrest, scars accumulated through the Muilenburg and Calhoun eras.
- Major jet deals with Qatar Airways and Emirates, plus higher 2025 delivery guidance, have nudged retail sentiment back into bullish territory.
To say that Boeing had a terrible 2024 would be an understatement. Last year, the planemaker faced a herculean task — handling a quality crisis to regain trust as an iconic American company. It hired an industry veteran who previously worked at Rockwell Collins and RTX, with over 30 years of experience in aerospace and defense space.
When Robert K. “Kelly” Ortberg joined Boeing last year, the planemaker had been in a soup following the door panel of an Alaska Airlines-operated Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet blowing off midair in January.
Boeing’s stock has gained nearly 10% since July 2024, when Ortberg was named CEO, signalling investor trust that he may just be able to make the planemaker believe it can fly again.
Along with building trust following the safety incident, Ortberg has also been tasked with reviving Boeing amid its supply crisis, labor unions and strikes, persistent losses, and scrutiny regarding its production.
A New Honcho Enters
Ortberg succeeded David Calhoun as the chief executive in August last year, after the latter had announced his intention to retire from the company, having served as president and CEO since January 2020.
In the 16 months since Ortberg took the helm, Boeing stock has reclaimed the $200 mark.
Under Calhoun, the stock tumbled about 43% from around January 2020, when he was named CEO. His exit four years later was the second time Boeing had lost a leader due to a 737 MAX-related incident.
Boeing was subjected to several rounds of scrutiny by the federal government, including the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which also prohibited the company from raising production of the 737 MAX family of jets above 38 a month.
Boeing Before Calhoun
Dennis A. Muilenburg was Calhoun’s predecessor and served as the CEO from 2015 to 2019. His career was even more crisis-laden than Calhoun’s. Muilenburg was ousted from Boeing for failing to contain the fallout from fatal crashes that happened in a span of five months involving the 737 MAX and claimed 346 lives. That led to the grounding of the 737 Max planes in March 2019, and Boeing eventually suspended production of the aircraft that year.
During his tenure, Boeing stock jumped 133% and touched over $350 for the first time. But the shares had declined nearly 9% since the first crash involving Lion Air Flight 610 in October 2018.
Ortberg’s Boeing Gets Trump Support
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration in early November said it had signed new deals to sell about 37 Boeing jets to airlines in the Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
In March, Trump awarded Boeing the contract to develop the U.S. Air Force’s most advanced fighter jet, delivering the company a crucial victory as Kelly Ortberg tries to revive Boeing.
The project, known as the Next Generation Air Dominance program, is set to replace Lockheed Martin’s F-22 Raptor with a manned aircraft designed to operate alongside drones.
A Year Of Wholesome Orders
In May, Boeing said that Qatar Airways will purchase up to 210 widebody jets, setting new records as the largest widebody order for Boeing, including the largest order for 787 Dreamliners and Qatar Airways’ largest-ever order. The purchase also includes additional orders for Boeing’s new 777-9.
At the Dubai Airshow in mid-November, Emirates announced it had placed its third order for 777X airplanes. The new order was for 65 units of 777-9 passenger jets.
Boeing has delivered 493 planes so far this year and has 836 gross orders as of October 31, according to its website. The planemaker has 6,534 unfilled orders.
Lingering Union Struggles
Union struggles continue to take up Boeing’s time. However, in November, the workers at Boeing Defense’s St. Louis-area facilities voted to approve the company’s latest contract offer.
The workers had been on a strike for 101 days, disrupting F-15 deliveries to the U.S. Air Force. The facility is known for assembling F-15 and F/A-18 fighter jets, the T-7 trainer aircraft, munitions, and wing sections for the 777X commercial jet, according to a Reuters report.
On Tuesday, however, Boeing CFO Jay Malave reportedly noted higher deliveries of its main aircraft models next year. According to a Bloomberg News report, Boeing is aiming for a positive free cash flow of “low-single digits” next year, after projecting a negative cash flow of $2 billion this year.
Retail sentiment on Boeing was in the ‘bullish’ territory when compared to the ‘bearish’ sentiment a year ago. Message volumes on the stock were at ‘extremely high’ levels, compared to the ‘low’ levels from a year ago, according to data from Stocktwits.
Shares of Boeing have gained 16% this year while the U.S.-listed stock of rival Airbus, a European planemaker, was up over 38% year-to-date.
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