Boeing (BA) Price on Solana

Boeing's roughly 17,000 engineers and technical workers — the company's largest white-collar union — voted to ratify a new four-year contract, averting a strike that could have halted engineering development and regulatory compliance work. The professional unit approved the deal 67.62% in favor, while the technical unit passed it with 53.48% support. Boeing had sweetened its offer after workers rejected an earlier proposal.

The four-year agreement includes an immediate 10% ratification wage increase, annual raises of 4% with merit bumps of up to 6%, enhanced health care and retirement benefits, two additional vacation days, a new floating holiday, and three bereavement days. The deal removes a near-term disruption risk for Boeing as it works to improve build quality, clear its aircraft backlog, and pursue federal certification for new models.

Boeing has been selected by the U.S. Navy to develop the F/A-XX, the service's next-generation carrier-based strike fighter, in a full-scale development award worth more than $20 billion. The aircraft is part of the Navy's Next Generation Air Dominance effort and is intended to eventually replace the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler fleets, with operational deployment expected in the 2030s. Under the contract, Boeing will build multiple test aircraft for ground, airworthiness, systems and weapons integration testing.

Boeing beat Northrop Grumman for the award, which CNBC noted is the company's second sixth-generation fighter win in about a year, after the Air Force picked Boeing for its F-47 in 2025. Boeing shares rose about 2.5% in after-hours trading following the announcement and were up roughly 3% in premarket trading on Wednesday, while Northrop Grumman shares fell around 3.5% to 5% over the same period. The program gives Boeing's defense business a multi-decade revenue stream across development, production, sustainment and software.

The Federal Aviation Administration will hold off on certifying Boeing's 737 MAX 10 until it is sure the software problem Boeing disclosed on September 26 is not a safety issue. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford announced the delay on September 28. "We will be delaying the 10 until we're satisfied that we don't have an issue here," he said. He would not say whether a fix would take days, weeks or months. The FAA is setting up a Corrective Action Review Board to look at the problem. It sits in flight-management software supplied by GE Aerospace. In one specific landing scenario, after a missed approach, pilots can lose access to automated vertical navigation guidance, though they still control the aircraft. Boeing is working on a software update.

The delay hits the largest MAX variant just as approval looked close. Alaska Airlines had expected MAX 10 certification by the end of September, with deliveries planned for spring 2027. United Airlines, another major MAX 10 customer, says none of its current aircraft use the affected software and it is refusing deliveries that carry that version. WestJet says its fleet includes the affected software but it has had no in-service incidents.

Boeing has told 737 MAX operators about a software problem that can stop automated vertical navigation guidance from working after a missed approach. According to NBC News and CNBC, the problem shows up when pilots change their planned flight path after aborting a landing. It traces back to a cockpit software update, reported as version U.14. Boeing notified all 737 MAX operators in late August. In its statement, the company said the notice "reinforced existing pilot procedures for safely handling such cases" and that "our engineers are working on a software update to permanently address the issue." Boeing noted that pilots are trained to land without the automated system. It is also working with airlines on a formal procedure for re-enabling vertical navigation if the problem occurs. No date has been given for the permanent fix.

The Federal Aviation Administration said it will convene a Corrective Action Review Board, review Boeing's proposed fix, and "take immediate action if it identifies a safety concern." Southwest, United, Alaska and American said their active 737 MAX fleets don't run the affected software. According to NBC, Southwest and United have asked Boeing not to deliver aircraft with that software, and it's still unclear how many jets in service carry it. The glitch puts the 737 MAX program back under regulatory scrutiny as Boeing works to restore confidence after the 2018-2019 crashes and the 2024 door-plug blowout.

CNBC argues that Boeing shares have become a wait-and-see story, a little over two years into CEO Kelly Ortberg's turnaround plan. It names three open questions: how Boeing re-enters the Chinese market, which remains unclear despite recent trade talk; how the U.S.-Iran war plays out; and whether Boeing can raise its own production rates. Only the last one is fully in the company's hands.

Production is where Boeing has slipped. Ortberg said the 737 MAX wings, all built in Renton, Washington, "just have not seen the flow improvements that we expected in the timeframe." After visiting the Renton plant, Wolfe Research analysts called the delay disappointing, but said the next rate step "does appear imminent (wings in Sep; final assembly in Oct)," with recent process changes making a difference.

Ahead of the Trump-Xi summit in Washington, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer reported that roughly 140 Boeing aircraft are in a "good state" of progress under the trade framework deal, with 10 additional orders being drafted. The commitment to purchase approximately 150 commercial jets from Boeing was part of the broader October 2025 trade truce between the U.S. and China, alongside Chinese pledges to buy 25 million tons of U.S. soybeans annually and resume some rare earth exports. Unlike the soybean purchases — where China has fulfilled nearly half its annual commitment — the Boeing aircraft pipeline lacks transparency: buyers and delivery schedules remain undisclosed, making it difficult to assess how firm the orders are or when revenue would flow to Boeing.

The uneven progress across the truce's three headline commitments raises questions about durability. Chinese rare earth magnet shipments to the U.S. fell 20% in August 2026, and export licenses for some U.S. firms have been pending for over six months, signaling that Beijing is preserving strategic leverage even while nominally complying. For Boeing, that fragility matters: aircraft purchases are high-value, long-lead orders that Chinese state-affiliated carriers could redirect to Airbus if broader trade tensions resurface. Boeing's commercial recovery depends in part on restoring Chinese market access lost during years of trade friction, and the opacity around current order progress means any breakdown in U.S.-China talks would hit the order book faster than Boeing's public disclosures might suggest.

Korean Air formalized a 103-aircraft order with Boeing at a Seoul ceremony on September 15, 2026, encompassing 25 787-10 Dreamliners built at the North Charleston, South Carolina facility, 20 777-9s, 50 737-10s, and 8 777-8 freighters. The total package — including 21 spare engines and a 15-year maintenance agreement for 28 aircraft — comes to $44.8 billion, with the jet orders estimated at roughly $12.6 billion at typical market discounts according to aviation consultancy IBA. Boeing framed the deal as a product of bilateral U.S.-South Korea trade negotiations.

The order adds to Boeing's existing 787 backlog of more than 1,100 units, a queue the company is working to reduce by investing over $1 billion at the Charleston plant and hiring more than 1,000 workers to lift production rates. Korean Air has taken delivery of 22 Dreamliners since 2015 and is awaiting 29 more, making the additional 25 a long-horizon commitment. The 777-9 and 737-10 variants included in the order remain in FAA certification or final development stages, so delivery timelines for those models extend further out.

Boeing completed the first landing gear exchange for the 737 MAX, with American Airlines as the inaugural customer. Rather than performing a full in-place overhaul, American Airlines received pre-overhauled and certified main and nose landing gear assemblies along with installation kits from Boeing — eliminating what would otherwise amount to weeks of aircraft downtime. Boeing handles the technical overhaul, incorporates applicable service bulletins, manages certification, and coordinates with suppliers, shifting inventory and obsolescence risk away from the airline.

William Ampofo, Boeing's senior vice president of Parts & Distribution, said the exchange delivers "predictable, safe, and cost-effective outcomes." Boeing said it plans to expand global overhaul capacity through certified maintenance partners and position forward-exchange slots closer to customer operations in the near term.

Boeing delivered 51 commercial jets in August 2026, down about 10.5% from the same month a year earlier, yet the company's year-to-date tally represents its best pace since 2018. The delivery figure contributed to a broader recovery narrative that pushed BA shares back above $200, though the stock remains down more than 5% year-to-date.

Investor optimism is grounded in Boeing's improving financials rather than August's delivery count alone. Q2 revenue reached $24.5 billion, an 8% year-over-year gain, and adjusted free cash flow turned positive at $631 million versus negative $200 million in the prior-year quarter. The company also holds a $715 billion order backlog covering more than 6,200 commercial aircraft, giving it substantial revenue visibility. CEO Kelly Ortberg has made rebuilding trust with customers, regulators, and suppliers the central priority, and analysts are watching whether the production ramp continues without the labor disruptions and quality setbacks that weighed on the stock through much of 2024 and 2025.

Boeing's Defense, Space & Security segment posted a paradoxical Q2 result: revenue climbed 13% year-over-year to $7.5 billion, yet the segment recorded a $15 million operating loss — a reversal from $110 million profit a year earlier — weighed down largely by $280 million in losses on the VC-25B presidential aircraft program. Recent contract wins, including a $241.3 million Navy deal for F/A-18 Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler flight-control repairs through 2032 and a $109 million order for 76 F/A-18 outer-wing panels, show Boeing's defense order book remains active, but they do not yet resolve the profitability gap.

The investment thesis for Boeing hinges on whether defense revenue can translate into sustainable operating profit and free cash flow while the commercial segment heals. On the commercial side, Q2 revenue rose 8% to $11.8 billion and operating losses narrowed to $322 million from $557 million, with 171 aircraft delivered. Hedge fund holders fell from 99 to 90 funds quarter-over-quarter, signaling measured conviction. Boeing's ability to close defense segment losses — rather than simply win contracts — is now seen as a key precondition for a credible, self-funding recovery.