Boeing layoffs: Company to cut 5% of commercial airplane workforce as production delays threaten recovery plans
Boeing plans to cut around 5% of its Commercial Airplanes workforce even as it struggles to increase jetliner production, Reuters reported.
Commercial Airplanes chief Stephanie Pope informed employees about the decision in an internal memo on Monday.
"As shared in our third-quarter earnings, we need to reset the pace of our production rate ramps to provide our factories and supply chain partners additional time to achieve stability. Adjusting our production schedules and reducing aircraft output puts us in an overstaffed position," Pope said in the memo, according to Reuters.
The reductions will be carried out through attrition and involuntary layoffs, according to the memo. Notices will be sent to employees in December at the earliest. Boeing is required to give workers 60 days' notice in many US states.
The development comes after Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said last month that the company would miss its 737 jetliner production and delivery targets in 2026.
"Everybody wants us to go faster, I get that, but we're going to stay disciplined as we ramp up here," CEO Kelly Ortberg said during the company's third-quarter earnings call, according to Bloomberg.
"As we've looked at this, we feel like we have a better handle on the risk to where we can provide you an outlook that we can meet," he added.
Boeing now expects to reach a production rate of 47 jets per month in early 2027. It had earlier projected that it would achieve that pace by summer 2026.
The company also does not expect to reach $10 billion in free cash flow until 2029, Ortberg has said. Analysts had expected Boeing to achieve the target by 2028.
Boeing's 737 narrowbody jet is its biggest cash generator, making an increase in production crucial to the company's recovery. However, the company has also struggled to increase production of its popular 787 widebody jet from eight to 10 aircraft a month. Its 767 and 777 programmes have also encountered disruptions, Reuters reported last month.
Boeing's Commercial Airplanes division, based in Seattle, had 50,494 employees as of December 2025, according to the company's website. So, around 2,500 workforce is expected to be impacted.
Several employees told Reuters that workers had been concerned about possible layoffs ahead of Monday's announcement.
The layoffs would be first for the company since 2024, when it let go of 17,000 of its employees. Boeing was facing a dire financial position incurred by a crippling machinist strike and the fallout from a door-sized panel blowing out of an Alaska Air Group Inc. 737 Max 9 earlier that year, according to Bloomberg.
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