Boeing has spent years climbing out of one mess after another. May was a sign the climb is working.
The planemaker handed over 60 jets last month. That is up 33% from a year ago.
Most of them were the 737 MAX. That is Boeing's best-selling plane.
Boeing shipped 51 of the single-aisle jets in May. That is its best month for the MAX in over a year.
The last time it built this many was before a 2024 strike. The strike shut the line down for a while.
Now the line is busy again. Boeing plans to build even more this summer.
It will raise output from 42 jets a month to 47. That ramp matters a lot.
The MAX ramp is the heart of Boeing's recovery plan. More planes out the door means more cash in.
The 737 MAX is the plane that pays Boeing's bills. It is the steady seller that makes Boeing a blue-chip industrial.
Through May, Boeing has delivered 250 jets this year. Most of them, 198, were 737 MAX planes.
Each MAX off the line is money Boeing badly needs. The jet is its biggest source of cash.
A busy factory floor is the clearest sign the firm is back on track.
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One number keeps the party in check. Rival Airbus delivered 81 jets in May.
That is well ahead of Boeing's 60. Airbus pulled ahead while Boeing fixed its problems.
So closing that gap will take time. Airbus is lifting output fast, so Boeing has to run just to keep pace.
Airbus also booked a flood of new orders in May. The whole jet market is running hot right now.
But Boeing still has plenty of work booked. Its order backlog tops 6,000 planes.
Lufthansa added to it last month with an order for 10 bigger 787 jets. Boeing booked 27 fresh orders in all.
It also lost 16 MAX orders to cancellations. That left 11 net new orders for the month, and 295 so far this year.
Boeing's May scorecard:
The 787 is the soft spot. Boeing delivered just six of them in May, plus two freight jets.
The holdup is a delay in getting premium seats approved. That has slowed the wide-body line.
The real test is simple. Can Boeing keep raising output without a new stumble?
The order book gives it room to recover. The bigger question is how fast it can build.
Investors will track the monthly delivery count closely. A clean summer would prove May was no fluke.
Its best month in over a year still left it behind Airbus. That shows how far it has to climb.
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