President Donald Trump selected the aerospace giant to build the Next-Generation Air Dominance Platform, which he said will be the most lethal aircraft ever built.
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said Wednesday that he will work to protect the aerospace giant’s turnaround from the impact of the trade war between the U.S. and its trading partners, particularly China.
Ahead of the company’s quarterly earnings announcement, Ortberg sent a letter to Boeing employees outlining the company’s progress on four areas of its recovery plan, which included comments about how the ongoing trade disputes could impact the company.
“While we are closely watching the developments in global trade, our strong start to the year combined with the demand for airplanes and our half-trillion-dollar backlog for our products and services gives us the flexibility we need to navigate this environment,” Ortberg wrote.
During the question-and-answer portion of the earnings call, Ortberg told analysts, “I feel really good about our overall plan for the year, even though I expect the China situation will take away some of the headroom we’ve built with our strong first-quarter deliveries.”
CHINA BEGINS RETURNING BOEING AIRCRAFT TO US
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg testifies before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation about production quality issues on April 2, 2025. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
Ortberg said China is the only country where Boeing has encountered problems with aircraft deliveries due to the Trump administration’s tariffs, though he noted that the company is monitoring potential retaliation by Europe and is in regular contact with the White House.
“I don’t think a day goes by where we aren’t engaged with someone in the administration, including … Cabinet secretaries and up to POTUS himself,” Ortberg said in reference to President Donald Trump.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BA | THE BOEING CO. | 172.34 | +9.98 | +6.15% |
Boeing is paying a 10% tax on imports from countries like Japan and Italy, though it expects to recover some of those costs when aircraft are exported.
BOEING CEO SAYS COMPANY WON’T RAMP UP PRODUCTION YET, VOWS TO ‘GET IT RIGHT’
A China Eastern Airlines Boeing 777 is shown at Los Angeles International Airport on March 28, 2025. (Kevin Carter/Getty Images)
In comments on CNBC, Ortberg said China has sent back two of the three aircraft it had in the country that were ready for delivery because the Chinese government halted acceptance of those aircraft due to the trade dispute. Boeing expected to send roughly 50 aircraft to China this year, though Ortberg said the company will be “pretty pragmatic” about how it approaches sales to China during the dispute.
“For those airplanes that haven’t been built yet, we’ll be looking to maybe redirect those to other customers,” Ortberg told the outlet. “For the airplanes that have been built, we call it remarketing. There’s plenty of customers out there looking for the Max aircraft.”
This view shows Boeing 737 Max fuselages atop rail cars at a train yard in Seattle on Dec. 5, 2024. (Reuters/Matt Mills McKnight)
In 2024, Boeing struggled with manufacturing quality issues, which have prompted regulators to place limits on its production of its top-selling 737 Max aircraft, as well as a strike that impacted its production late last year.
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Ortberg said the company is working to cautiously increase output of Boeing 737 Max aircraft this year, calling it the “key to cash generation,” and added that Boeing also hopes to conduct more flights of its troubled Starliner space program later this year.
Reuters contributed to this report.
