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Boeing deliveries dip in January, but surpass rival Airbus

Lauren Rosenblatt, The Seattle Times on

Published in Business News

Boeing delivered 46 airplanes in January, including 37 737 Maxes and five 787 Dreamliners.

That’s lower than Boeing’s December output of 63 planes, including 44 Maxes and 14 787s.

But it marks Boeing’s highest January delivery total since 2019, just before the second of two fatal 737 Max crashes grounded Boeing’s most popular plane and one year before the COVID-19 pandemic slowed air travel and wreaked havoc on the aerospace supply chain.

Over the past 10 years, Boeing has delivered an average of 36 planes in January.

Boeing's 46 deliveries last month is also significantly higher than its European rival Airbus, which delivered 19 planes in January. Of those, Airbus delivered 18 narrowbody planes from its A320 family, which competes with Boeing’s 737 Max, and one widebody A350.

Analysts expect Airbus is still recovering from a quality problem affecting its A320 family that surfaced late last year. In December, Airbus said it had “identified a supplier quality issue” affecting metal panels on the A320. The problem was contained and did not affect new panels, the company said, but Airbus lowered its delivery expectations for the year as a result.

Boeing spent much of 2025 continuing its recovery from the Max crashes, pandemic and then a midair fuselage blowout in January 2024.

Two years since the harrowing incident, Boeing has seemingly turned a corner.

It reported a $2 billion profit in 2025, compared with an $11.8 billion loss in 2024; captured the fifth highest number of orders in company history; and delivered 600 airplanes, its highest output since 2018 and a significant increase from the 348 planes delivered in 2024.

In October, the Federal Aviation Administration allowed Boeing to increase monthly Max production beyond 38 planes per month, a cap the regulator put in place following the midair blowout at the start of 2024.

Boeing’s monthly delivery rate is an approximate measure of how quickly planes are moving through the company’s final assembly lines, though it is not a direct comparison. The delivery rate can include nearly finished planes that moved through the factory earlier and were waiting for final delivery to customers.

In January 2025, Boeing delivered 40 737 Max planes, compared with 37 in January 2026.

Last year’s delivery number was boosted by extra inventory left over from a Machinists strike in the fall of 2024, which stopped production lines in Renton and Everett. Boeing’s suppliers continued working during the strike, leaving the aerospace manufacturer with a surplus of inventory once its final assembly lines were running again.

 

Boeing’s Max deliveries dipped again for the next four months, before rising to 42 in June. It ended the year with 44 Max deliveries in December.

The company expects to again increase Max production this year, from 42 planes per month to 47, and has begun hiring for the ramp-up in Renton and for a planned fourth Max production line in Everett.

Meanwhile, in North Charleston, S.C., Boeing is also increasing production of its 787 Dreamliner, from five to eight and then, sometime this year, to 10.

It delivered five 787s in January 2026, compared with four in January 2025. It increased deliveries through the year, with seven deliveries in four months last year, and ending the year with 14 deliveries in December.

Boeing also delivered three 777 freighters in January and one 767 to its defense division.

In terms of orders, Boeing marked a successful year in 2025. With 1,173 net orders, last year was Boeing’s fifth-highest annual order count and the first time it had beat Airbus on orders in several years.

Last month, Boeing booked 112 net orders, its highest January total since 2012, when it booked 148 net orders.

The manufacturer again surpassed Airbus, which reported 49 gross orders compared to Boeing’s 107 gross orders.

Of Boeing’s orders, 73 were for the 737 Max and 34 for the 787, including an order from Delta Air Lines for 30 Dreamliners.

Boeing recorded four cancellations, two for the 737 Max and two for the 787. Adjusting for accounting principles, nine orders moved from Boeing’s reserve into its backlog.

Its backlog increased from 6,130 as of Dec. 31 to 6,196 as of Jan. 31.


©2026 The Seattle Times. Visit seattletimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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