Chief Financial Officer Jay Malave said the plane maker expects positive free cash flow in the “low single digits” in 2026. That implies the company will churn out more than $1 billion of cash next year. Malave issued that upbeat projection despite an expected Justice Department settlement to be paid out next year and other capital spending that will drag on the balance sheet. This year, the company expects to report a negative cash flow of roughly $2 billion.
The executive also spelled out plans to deliver more wide-body 787 and narrow-body 737 MAX jets to customers as Boeing’s production rates recover. “We’re going to be increasing our deliveries, but there won’t be hardly any aircraft, if any at all, that will be coming out of inventory” next year, Malave said Tuesday at a UBS investor conference. “So it’ll be really through the production rollout system.”
Boeing still expects to close its acquisition of supplier Spirit AeroSystems this year, Malave added. The plane maker said in 2024 that it would take over the Wichita, Kan., company after the blowout of an Alaska Air door plug exposed persistent quality-control issues with the 737 maker’s production process.
Boeing shares recently traded up about 8%.