Spirit AeroSystems significantly ramped up deliveries to Airbus and Boeing in the fourth quarter of 2024 but still expects to post a $413 million loss for the period.
The Wichita company on 10 February released preliminary fourth-quarter results, saying its loss reflects $401 million in charges taken due to ongoing production issues and to “labour and supply chain cost growth”.
Those issues aside, Spirit, which is moving forward with a deal to be acquired by Boeing in mid-2025, shipped components for 457 jets – most of them Airbus and Boeing products – in the fourth quarter, up from 398 shipsets in the prior-year period.
As a consequnece of the Boeing deal, Airbus intends to acquire the work Spirit performs for its programmes.
Across the whole of 2024, Spirit shipped components for 1,432 jets, 14 more than in 2023.
Notably, Spirit delivered 133 737 fuselages in the final quarter, up 28% year on year, and 19 787 shipsets, up from 11 in the prior-year period.
Those increasing deliveries come as Boeing works to get its production systems back on track following a tumultuous 2024 that included quality concerns, stepped up regulatory oversight, and a late-year production halt owing to a machinists’ strike.
But some analysts think Boeing and its supply chain have turned a corner.
“I’m very upbeat. I’m very bullish on Boeing, and I think [chief executive Kelly Ortberg] is going to turn his company around. Supply chain is improving,” Kevin Michaels, analyst with AeroDynamic Advisory, said last week.
Spirit generated $1.7 billion in fourth-quarter revenue, down 8% year on year – largely reflecting a revenue bump in the third-quarter of 2023 resulting from then-newly revised supply agreements with Airbus and Boeing.
Spirit’s fourth-quarter costs jumped 36% year on year to $2.1 billion.
The company says the $401 million in forward losses logged during the fourth quarter primarily reflect inflation and production issues affecting its 787, A220 and A350 work.
