CEO confident Boeing will clear higher MAX output in 2025

SEATTLE

(FILES) A Boeing 737 MAX aircraft is assembled at the Boeing Renton Factory in Renton, Washington, on June 25, 2024.(AFP)

Boeing is eyeing approvals for significantly higher production of the 737 MAX in 2025 after U.S. authorities allowed increased output on the 787 plane, the company's CEO has said.

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said the company could win U.S. approval to raise MAX output at mid-year and again at the end of 2025. The faster than expected timeframe boosted shares.

The Federal Aviation Administration in the last month green-lighted Boeing to produce seven 787 Dreamliner planes per month, up from five, Ortberg said at a financial conference.

The FAA review is "the same process we're going to use for the 737 MAX increase," Ortberg said. "So I feel pretty good, and we talked with the FAA extensively to make sure we're aligned."

The FAA has currently capped Boeing's MAX production at 38 per month.

The agency began more closely monitoring Boeing's production processes following a January 2024 incident on an Alaska Airlines plane in which a window panel blew out mid-flight.

Ortberg was recruited to Boeing last August following a leadership shakeup. Boosting plane output is essential to returning Boeing to profitability after a series of losses.

Ortberg is targeting a mid-year FAA approval to 42 per month for the MAX in light of improved production processes.

That could set the stage for an FAA approval to 47 per month around the end of 2025, although the company would not begin producing that many planes in 2025, he said.