Boeing reports drop in profit but sees ‘momentum’ for turnaround

Boeing reported a drop in profit and weaker revenue than analysts had expected for Q2, but said on Wednesday that it was close to restarting deliveries of its 787 Dreamliner plane and was on track to end the year with more cash coming into the business than out of it. The company said it had earned $160m in the quarter, down from $567m a year earlier, on nearly $16.7b in revenue, which was 2% lower than last year. The company’s free cash flow, a closely followed measure of financial health, was negative $182m in Q2, but Boeing said it was poised to report positive cash flow for the full year. The announcement followed a banner week in which Boeing announced sales of nearly 200 commercial planes during an international air show. Boeing’s share price was up 0.1% at the close of trading on Wednesday. The company is “building momentum in our turnaround,” said Dave Calhoun, Boeing’s CE. During Q2, Boeing reached its goal of increasing production of the 737 Max, its flagship commercial plane, to 31 jets per month. Boeing had been turning out as many as 52 Max models per month until the jet was involved in two fatal crashes in late 2018 and early 2019. Those crashes, which killed 346 people, led to a global ban of the plane from March 2019 through nearly all of 2020. The Max was allowed to fly again on the condition that Boeing made certain fixes to the plane. Since then, Boeing’s backlog of orders for the plane has recovered meaningfully, and the Max has carried out tens of thousands of flights and spent more than 1.5m hours in the air, according to the company. <br/>