Boeing suppliers will continue producing parts for the company’s maligned 737 Max despite a recent manufacturing issue halting delivery of the narrow-body aircraft, company CEO Dave Calhoun said Tuesday.
China Southern Airlines Boeing 737 Max airplanes are parked at the edge of the tarmac at Urumqi Diwopu International Airport in Urumqi in western China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region April 21, 2021. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein / AP Newsroom)
Last week, Boeing indicated that near-term deliveries of the jet would slow as the company repairs a new manufacturing problem involving the Spirit AeroSystems fuselage.
During Boeing’s annual meeting, Calhoun said the company is comfortable holding buffer stock as its production heats up to support an increase in jet production from its current rate of 31 Max planes per month.
An experimental Boeing 737 Max 10 jet airliner readies for its flying display in front of Boeing workers at the Farnborough Airshow July 20, 2022, at Farnborough, England. (Richard Baker/In Pictures via Getty Images / Getty Images)
To date, Boeing is slated to deliver 38 jets by June before subsequently increasing monthly production to 42 planes by January 2024, 47 jets by June next year and 52 a month by January 2025, a rate Boeing has not held since 2019, when the company decreased output after two fatal Max crashes.
Despite the delivery pause, shares for Boeing are up Tuesday after rising roughly 1.37% the last month and almost 9% since Jan. 1.
Reuters contributed to this report.