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Boeing’s commercial airplane unit on Jan. 14 reported it shipped 348 aircraft in 2024, closing out a year of extraordinary strategic tumult for the plane maker. One delivery in particular stands out: a single widebody 777-300ER that first flew nearly five years ago, sat in the California desert and is now likely the final of its type.
Last year began with a major safety crisis in January when an Alaska Airlines flight lost an improperly installed plug exit that forced the grounding of a major portion of Boeing’s 737 Max 9 fleet. That sparked intense regulatory scrutiny, followed by a major leadership overhaul, then a move to reintegrate its largest supplier and later a work stoppage by its machinists that lasted 53 days at its unionized commercial aircraft plants and didn’t see its production resume fully for another month.
That disrupted production tempo meant Boeing’s 2024 deliveries were 34% lower than in 2023 when it delivered 528 aircraft. Five years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, both Boeing and Airbus have yet to reach 2019 levels of output for an airline industry that has become persistently capacity constrained as demand has returned.
Related: Five years since the pandemic, an uneven recovery persists for aircraft manufacturers
The story behind the final 777-300ER exemplifies the last five years for Boeing and the industry at large. The aircraft made its maiden flight painted for China Southern Airlines on Jan. 21, 2020 — the same day the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in the United States at a nursing home in Washington state, not far from Boeing’s Everett final assembly line. Days later, an early production test flight coincided with the two-day saga of the 777-9’s first flight. Originally scheduled for the morning of Jan. 24, the first attempt at flying the 777X prototype was stalled by high winds and stormy weather.
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