Boeing’s Best Year Since 2018

Boeing has confirmed its October 2025 orders and deliveries, revealing a strong pace for the long-troubled business.

During the month, the planemaker delivered 53 aircraft, which is lower than in August and September but still above the 50 mark that the business has consistently delivered since August.

53 aircraft brings the year total to 493, meaning the business is on track for its highest delivery total since 2018, the final year before the troubles of Boeing truly emerged.

For all the obstacles Boeing has faced, and with multiple models that would be being produced for airlines if not remaining uncertified, the planemaker has closed the gap between itself and Airbus quite considerably.

The gap between the two planemakers over the first ten months of the year is under 100 units. While in the last couple of months Airbus has been able to outpace Boeing, the American manufacturer would be relatively happy with its momentum.

Across the month, the bulk of deliveries came from the 737 MAX program, totalling 39. The biggest beneficiary was Southwest, which welcomed nine more units, followed by Ryanair, which secured five additional units.

Boeing’s Road To Recovery

For Boeing, its highest-production aircraft, measured by backlog and monthly output rates, is the 737 MAX, so when production caps were implemented on the program due to quality-related concerns, this hurt the planemaker.

Since the beginning of 2024, the Federal Aviation Administration has sought to implement caps on the planemaker’s MAX production to get to the bottom of quality concerns that have emerged recently.

Additionally, these caps, which were set at 38 units per month, meant that while the backlog would increase for the series, Boeing was unable to respond; it was growing, and delays only continued to mount.

However, since the production caps were implemented, Boeing has sought to invest significantly in financial and human resources to right the systemic wrongs that have long plagued the business.

That investment has attempted to turn around Boeing’s fortunes, once and for all, after previous failed attempts uncovered only further quality issues. With new management at the helm, this was the last opportunity to turn a page in the book.

That page is now slowly being built, surely turned, with the Federal Aviation Administration granting Boeing permission to increase its monthly production rate for the MAX to 42 units, a jump of 4 units.

This increase in the 737 MAX program also allows Boeing to show customers that it has addressed long-standing issues, and now customers are beginning to see their confidence in the business increase through visits to the production floor, previously the source of many of the problems.

With the hoped-for increase in production across the 737 MAX program into 2026, the company is also keen to increase 787 production rates in the coming years, as evidenced by a $1 billion investment in its Charleston plant.