Boeing postpones annual guidance amid 737 Max crisis

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Boeing declined to give its usual annual guidance alongside its latest quarterly results, as the aerospace and defence company tried to deal with the fallout from a mid-air incident on one of its 737 Max 9 jets in early January.

Chief executive Dave Calhoun wrote in a note to employees on Wednesday that “now is not the time” to share financial or operational objectives as executives prepared to address investors publicly for the first time since part of the fuselage blew out during an Alaska Airlines flight on January 5.

Wall Street had pencilled in net income of $3.1bn on revenue of $89.5bn for 2024, according to a LSEG survey of analysts.

Boeing did not provide any estimate for the financial hit from the incident and the subsequent grounding of potentially affected jets or the growth limit on its 737 Max production rate recently imposed by the US aviation regulator.

The company on Wednesday reported a net loss of $30mn on revenue of $22bn in the three months ended December 31, which were both ahead of analysts’ forecasts.

Boeing said it generated $4.4bn of free cash flow in 2023, falling within the $3bn-$5bn range it had guided to previously. The company did not provide an update on its 2025-26 cash flow target, having set a goal of about $10bn for that period at an investor day in November 2022.

The company said on Wednesday it was producing 737 Maxes at a rate of 38 a month by the end of 2023, meeting its target.

Investors expect to hear updates from Calhoun this morning during US TV appearances and ahead of the company’s analyst call later today, with the 737 Max jet issue widely expected to overshadow the group’s latest earnings report.

Calhoun said the company had “much to prove” to regain its stakeholders’ confidence. “I’ve had tough and direct conversations with our customers, regulators and lawmakers. They are disappointed”.

Boeing shares were up more than 1 per cent in pre-market trading on Wednesday.