A Boeing plane in production earlier this year. (Jennifer Buchanan / AFP via Getty Images)

Boeing has lost $28 billion since 737 MAX crashes

For decades, Boeing was a profit machine. Two plane crashes triggered a string of problems the company has yet to recover from.

Nate Becker

7/31/24 10:37AM

Boeing announced a new CEO on Wednesday morning, marking the second time the jet maker has swapped out its top executive since two of its 737 MAXes crashed, killing hundreds of people on board. Since then, the company has been mired in problems, and its bottom line has been bathed in red ink.

Alongside the CEO announcement, Boeing said it posted a loss of $1.44 billion for the latest quarter. That brings the total amount of net losses the company has incurred since the second quarter of 2019 to a staggering $27.8 billion, according to FactSet data.

Boeing has been in dire straits for years following the two 737 MAX crashes, which happened in October 2018 and March 2019. Then in January 2024, a section of a Boeing Alaska Airlines jet blew out. Terrifying videos of the incident flooded the internet and intense scrutiny of the company’s manufacturing processes followed. The Justice Department opened an investigation into the issue.

The company also agreed earlier this month to plead guilty to misleading regulators in the run-up to the two 737 MAX crashes.

Kelly Ortberg will step in after Dennis Muilenburg and David Calhoun were unable to set the company back on course. It’s a job that was hard to hire for: The Wall Street Journal reported in June that “several high-profile candidates” had turned the company down.

Now Ortberg faces the enormous task of pulling Boeing out of the muck of all its mounting issues: a quality crisis, production slowdowns, labor negotiations, and a yearslong reputation problem.

Max Knoblauch10/24/25

Premium seats help push airlines higher following third-quarter results

Shares of American Airlines are climbing toward the carrier’s best trading day since August 12, when ultra-budget rival Spirit issued its initial warning about its ability to survive. American’s shares are up more than 7% on Friday afternoon.

Investors’ optimism comes a day after American posted a better-than-expected full-year earnings forecast. In a call with investors, American said that it’s ramping up its premium cabin offerings.

“Our ability to grow capacity in premium markets will be further supported as we take delivery of new aircraft and reconfigure our existing fleet. These efforts will allow us to grow our premium seats at nearly two times the rate of main cabin seats,” CEO Robert Isom said. American CFO Devin May said that nose-to-tail retrofits of certain wide-body jets will bump the number of premium seats available on those planes by 25%.

Extra legroom has been a boon for major carriers, particularly this quarter. Delta Air Lines said its premium product revenue grew 9% in Q3, compared to a 4% drop in economy seat revenue. Similarly, United Airlines said its premium revenue grew 6%, outpacing economy. Shares of both airlines were up more than 3% on Friday.

Carriers with less exposure to first- and business-class tickets like Southwest Airlines and JetBlue didn’t see the same amount of momentum on the day.