By Dan Catchpole
SEATTLE, Nov 9 (Reuters) – Boeing Commercial Airplanes plans to cut 5% of its workforce as it struggles to increase jetliner production output, the division’s chief, Stephanie Pope, told employees on Monday in an internal memo.
“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, which was reviewed by Reuters.
Boeing shares were down less than 1% in afternoon trading.
The reductions will happen through attrition and involuntary layoffs, with notices going out in December at the earliest, according to the memo. Boeing is required in many states to give workers 60 days’ notice.
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg told analysts last month the company would miss its 737 jetliner production and delivery targets this year. It now expects to hit a 737 production rate of 47 jets per month in early 2027, after previously projecting it would hit that pace by summer 2026.
He also said that the company does not expect to reach $10 billion in free cash flow until 2029, a year later than analysts had expected. That target is seen by investors as a critical milepost in its ongoing financial recovery following years of crises and controversies that left Boeing with a dented reputation, heavily in debt and under stricter regulatory scrutiny.
Boeing’s popular 737 narrowbody jet is its single largest cash generator, making higher output essential for the company’s recovery.
Boeing has also struggled to increase production of its popular 787 widebody jet from 8 jets a month to 10 a month. The company’s 767 and 777 programs have been disrupted as well, as first reported by Reuters last month.
The Seattle-based commercial airplane division had 50,494 employees as of December 2025, according to the company’s website.
Ahead of Monday’s announcement, many Boeing workers had worried that layoffs could soon come, several Boeing employees told Reuters.
(Reporting by Dan Catchpole in Seattle and Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore, Will Dunham and Bill Berkrot)
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