By Allison Lampert and Nathan Gomes
Dec 2 (Reuters) – Boeing expects higher jet deliveries and positive free cash flow next year, its finance chief said on Tuesday, sending shares of the planemaker up more than 8% in late morning trading.
The U.S. planemaker has been trying to improve its image and win a race for narrow-body plane orders with Airbus after a more than five-year corporate crisis disrupted production and sent it deeply into debt.
Boeing CFO Jay Malave told a UBS conference he expects the company to grow year over year in cash flow, a metric closely watched by investors.
“What we expect anyway is in the low single digits in terms of positive free cash flow, which I think is pretty substantial growth year over year,” Malave said.
Higher plane deliveries from two key commercial programs, coupled with improvements in its defense and space unit, are expected to be Boeing’s primary drivers for better margins in 2026, Malave added.Â
“Big picture, we expect deliveries both on the 737 and the 787 to grow,” Malave said.
He expects Boeing’s 737-10 narrow-body jet to be certified later this year, adding he was confident the planemaker would deliver on its annual $10 billion free cash flow target.Â
The company has, however, historically lagged well behind Airbus, in part due to the success of the European planemaker’s A321neo jets and as a series of safety and industrial mishaps from its 737 series hit its reputation.
Airbus has discovered an industrial quality issue affecting fuselage panels of several dozen A320-family aircraft, industry sources said on Monday, after a weekend recall of jets over a software bug.
(Reporting by Nathan Gomes in Bengaluru and Allison Lampert in Montreal; Editing by Leroy Leo and Rod Nickel)
