Boeing posts surprise profit as aircraft demand rebounded from pandemic slump

Boeing reported its first quarterly profit in almost two years on Wednesday, boosted by a surge in deliveries of commercial jetliners as airlines began recovering from a pandemic slump and sales rose in other divisions.

The manufacturer snapped six consecutive quarters of losses, swinging to a profit of $567 million for the second quarter from a net loss of $2.96 billion a year earlier as air travel was plunging early in the pandemic.

Boeing’s revenue rose 44% to nearly $17 billion from $11.8 billion a year ago, beating analyst estimates of $16.54 billion.

Here’s how the company performed compared with analysts’ estimates complied by Refinitiv:

• Adjusted EPS: 40 cents vs a per-share loss of 83 cents.
• Revenue: $17 billion vs. $16.54 billion.

Boeing shares jumped more than 3% in premarket trading after the company reported results.

“While we still have a ways to go before a full rebound, it is encouraging to see the commercial market improving, enabled by continued vaccine distribution and increasing travel demand, particularly in domestic markets,” CEO Dave Calhoun said in an employee memo Wednesday. “Going forward, we will closely monitor case rates, vaccine distribution, travel protocols and global trade as key indicators for recovery.”

Sales and deliveries of Boeing’s long-troubled 737 Max picked up in recent months with big orders from customers like United Airlines and Southwest Airlines, a vote of confidence in the plane that had been grounded worldwide until last November because of crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. Regulators lifted the ban after Boeing made changes to a flight-control system implicated in the crash.

Revenue also grew in Boeing’s global services unit as air traffic grew and demand for freighter conversions increased to cater to a boom in air cargo.

The company is still struggling with problems in other programs, including its wide-body 787 Dreamliner. Boeing earlier this month slashed its delivery forecast for those planes and said it would pause handovers to airlines for the second time in less than a year after finding another manufacturing flaw on the planes.