By Karl Sinclair

Dec. 3, 2025, © Leeham News: Boeing’s chief financial officer outlined the priorities for the use of cash going forward, and it reaffirms what has been obvious but largely unstated: debt reduction is the top priority.

Speaking at the UBS Global Industrials and Transportation Conference, The Boeing Company’s (BA) new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Jay Malave reiterated the corporation’s prudent position on where Free Cash Flow (FCF) was going to be spent.

“I think that between the balance that we have today, the cash flow that we’re going to be generating, that will give us plenty of optionality to pay down the debt, to invest in the future, and start thinking at the right time about investor returns,” Malave said.

Boeing CFO Jay Malave. Source: Boeing.

This is quite a departure from the position of the previous CFO Greg Smith, who once reported that Boeing was committed to returning 100% of FCF to investors. It is very much in line with the new culture that CEO Kelly Orberg is attempting to instill in the company.

Future Obligations

Boeing has an $8bn debt repayment in 2026 and a further $4bn in 2027.

It will also repay ~$3bn of Spirit Aerosystems (SA) debt, once the deal closes in late 2025. Boeing expects to retain ~1$bn of SA legacy debt, which will fall onto the Boeing balance sheet. There is also the matter of a ~$450m payment to Airbus (AB), which Boeing will pay, for Airbus to take on the parts of Spirit related to Airbus aircraft – most notably, the Belfast wing plant in Ireland.

Future obligations include a $700m payment to the Department of Justice, which relates to the January 2024 door-plug blowout on an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 8, and will now fall into the new year.

On Nov. 3, Boeing completed the sale of key assets from its Digital Aviation solution segment to private equity firm Thoma Bravo, which included Jeppesen, ForeFlight, AerData, and OzRunways, and netted the company $10.55bn in cash in the process.

Boeing retains the portion related to digital services tied to fleet maintenance, diagnostics, and repair for commercial and defense customers. These operations will remain at Boeing Global Services (BGS) under division CEO Chris Raymond.

BGS produced $3.618bn in earnings in FY2024 and $2.93bn through 3Q2025, a bright spot for the struggling company. It is yet to be determined what financial effects the divestitures will have on that segment.

Boeing, like Airbus, has also committed to retaining a “rainy-day fund.”

“We historically have talked about a $10bn minimum balance. That’s something that, for the time being, I adhere to and agree with. I’ll do my own analysis over a longer period of time to determine whether or not that should be a little bit higher, a little bit lower, but I think $10 billion minimum cash balance is a pretty good benchmark,” Malave elaborated.

He expects that the cash and equivalents balance to be in the neighbourhood of $29bn at year-end, after all the merger and divestiture activity.

Aircraft Certification and Deliveries

Malave expects 737 deliveries to be in the ballpark of 450 airframes for FY 2025.

“When you now fast forward to 2026, we’re going to be increasing our deliveries, but there won’t be hardly any aircraft, if any at all, that will be coming out of inventory. So it’ll be really through the production roll-out system that’ll be the source of the deliveries,” he said.

Certification of the MAX 7 and 10 variants (assuming they arrive at the same time) is now expected to occur in late 2026, with the ~35 aircraft in inventory reaching customers in 2027, once re-work has been completed. 737 MAX deliveries in 2026 rest fully upon aircraft coming off the production line.

Boeing 737 MAX 7. Source: Boeing.

The much-beleaguered 777X program is now in Phase 3, with partial Type Inspection Authorization (TIA) approval received in November. Avionics, environmental control systems, and auxiliary power units will be tested as part of this approval.

Boeing will require further TIA approvals from the FAA in order to move forward on the flight testing program.

BCA is working on stabilizing production and the supply chain at 42/mo on the 737 MAX program and 8/mo on the 787 program.

Malave expects Capital Expenditures (CapEx) to continue in 2026, directed towards increasing production rates.

“CapEx is growing really on the back of two projects. One is our growth driver in Charleston (SC) on the 787, which is a good thing. That’s going to be an enabler for us to drive up our rates up to around 14 over time per month, as well as the investment that we’re making in St. Louis for the new F47 program…They create some short-term pressure on CapEx and free cash flow,” he explained.

Malave is also cognizant of the costs associated with missing delivery dates.

“We’re sitting on some excess advances. It also puts pressure on the price per aircraft because we’re paying penalties on these aircraft that are delayed. But even with those challenges, it comes back to BCA deliveries. We expect that delivery to grow next year. That will be a large driver of positive cash flow. Embedded in that with increasing deliveries at BCA is the benefit of excess inventory burn-down,” he said.

Boeing 787-9 Source: Boeing.

A key point brought up was the intention to hit 14/mo on the 787 program. BCA needs to produce double-digits every month, in order for the program to be profitable for the company.

The last time Boeing was able to deliver those numbers was in 2019 (158 aircraft delivered), when production was split between the unionized Seattle-area FAL and the non-unionized Charleston (SC) FAL.

Today, production is completely reliant on the South Carolina facility, which is undergoing a much-needed expansion to double the footprint and move production beyond the 10/mo mark.

It is estimated that Boeing cannot make positive earnings on the Dreamliner program, producing under double-digits.

2026 and onwards

With the DOJ payment now slipping into 2026, the projected cash-burn rate for FY2025 improves from ~$2.5bn to $2bn.

“I expect free cash flow to grow….[2026] free cash flow to be in the low positive single digits. In spite of that, we know CapEx is growing next year,” Malave said.

This is despite the 777X program incurring a cash-burn of ~$2bn, spread out over the coming years.

Certification and the start of deliveries have now been pushed back to 2027.

It is a safe bet that Boeing will not receive any financial benefit from the MAX 7, MAX 10, and 777X programs in FY2026, despite the inventory build-up. Indeed, those variants will be a cash drain on the company, especially when the costs of certification and re-work are factored in.

However, given the tenor of upper management and the desire to focus on fiscal responsibility and engineering, one could say that the corporation is headed in the right direction.

Despite the non-committal nature of the CFO in regard to returning cash to investors, Boeing stock was up 9% subsequent to his comments. Perhaps a sign that investors approve of the steps the company is taking.