Boeing Max Deliveries Fall to 32 in October, Lowest in a Year

Boeing handed over just 32 737 Max aircraft in October, its weakest monthly figure since November 2025 and well below the pace needed to reach the company's abandoned target of 500 Max deliveries this year.

The October tally marks a sharp step down from 43 in September, 41 in August and 39 in July. Max deliveries peaked at 51 in May before slumping to 34 in April and 33 in March, when a machining issue left scratches on some wiring. Through the first 10 months of the year, Boeing has delivered 395 Maxes, up from 364 in the same period a year earlier.

Deliveries do not map one-to-one onto factory output, because some completed aircraft sit waiting for unfinished jobs or customer-specific work before handover. Even so, the monthly handoff count serves as the clearest public proxy for conditions inside the 737 factory in Renton, Washington.

What does the slowdown change for Boeing?

CEO Kelly Ortberg told investors in September that the planned production increase from 42 to 47 Max aircraft per month was taking longer than expected, and he identified the Renton wing shop as the constraint failing to keep pace with the faster cadence. He repeated those remarks on the third-quarter earnings call in October and said Boeing will not push output to rate 52 (52 aircraft per month) until mid-2027.

Executives confirmed to analysts in October that Boeing will miss its 500-delivery target for the Max this year.

The slower schedule has now reached the payroll. On Monday, Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Stephanie Pope told employees the division will cut roughly 5% of its commercial workforce through attrition and layoffs.

"Adjusting our production schedules and reducing aircraft output puts us in an overstaffed position," Pope said. "Unfortunately, that means we need to align our staffing levels to our revised business plan."

Widebody and total deliveries

Boeing's total commercial deliveries rose year over year, from 493 aircraft in the first 10 months of 2025 to 524 in the same period this year.

The 787 program, built in North Charleston, South Carolina, continued its uneven cadence: 10 deliveries in July, four in August, eight in September and 11 in October. Boeing has handed over 73 Dreamliners so far this year against 66 a year ago and still expects between 90 and 100 for the full year.

October also produced one 737 NG delivered to Boeing's defense unit, two 777 freighters and three 767s — two of the 767s to UPS and one to the defense division.

Boeing's total October output of 49 aircraft trails Airbus, which delivered 74 in the same month. For the first 10 months, Airbus leads 621 deliveries to Boeing's 524.

Orders and backlog

The order book tells a stronger story than the factory floor. Boeing booked 165 gross orders in October, anchored by Dublin-based lessor Avolon's order for 140 737 Max 10s, the recently certified largest variant of the Max family. That order lifts the Max 10 backlog to nearly 1,700 aircraft.

Boeing recorded no cancellations in October and no net change from accounting adjustments, leaving net orders for the month also at 165. For the first 10 months, the company booked 828 gross orders, which translate to 851 net after 45 cancellations and 68 accounting adjustments that added to the total.

Airbus booked 202 gross orders in October and 1,376 gross orders across the first 10 months.

Boeing's commercial backlog grew from 6,341 aircraft at the end of September to 6,457 at the end of October.

The widening gap between a record backlog and a constrained factory leaves Boeing's recovery resting on whether Renton can stabilize rate 47 — and on whether the Max 10's new order momentum can be converted into deliveries before the mid-2027 window for the next rate step.