Spirit AeroSystems gets funding lifeline from Boeing and Airbus

Spirit AeroSystems, one of the largest private-sector employers in Northern Ireland, is to receive about $450 million in advance payments from Boeing and Airbus after the supplier raised the alarm about its finances.
The struggling company has agreed up to $350 million in advance payments from Boeing, the American aerospace company. Airbus, the European planemaker, will pay up to $107 million.
Last week Spirit Aero said it was burning through depleted cash reserves and that there was “substantial doubt” the company would be able to continue as a going concern.
The supplier of fuselages for the Boeing 737 Max and parts of the 787 and other models has said it expects to burn about $450 million to $500 million over the last three months of this year and first half of next year.
The warning was seen as a notice to investors that it may be unable to pay its bills within the next 12 months.
Spirit Aero is a key supplier to Boeing and Airbus, as well as smaller jetmakers such as Bombardier. The company has seen inventory pile up and deliveries slump in recent weeks after a recently settled strike at Boeing. The supplier’s finances also suffered when Boeing Max production slumped after a door plug blew out of a plane mid-air on January 5. A new process for vetting fuselages for flaws introduced in March further delayed Spirit’s deliveries.
However, Boeing needs Spirit Aero to remain viable as it seeks to revive jet production after the 53-day strike by 30,000 of its machinists on the west coast of the United States, who are preparing to return to their jobs Tuesday.
Airbus relies on Spirit Aero for parts for its A350 and A220 jets and has warned that delays in receiving parts from Spirit could hurt A350 deliveries next year.
Spirit Aero said: “This agreement helps improve our liquidity. We continue to pursue a range of options to address our financial and spacing storage constraints and are working with our customers on these matters.”
Boeing said it continued to work closely with Spirit to “stabilise our production system and help us deliver for our customers”.
Spirit said the advances from Boeing would help it deliver at rates required by the planemaker and tackle excess inventories and lower cashflows. It also cited “lingering effects brought on by the recent strike by Boeing employees”.
Boeing is due to take over Spirit in mid-2025. The two companies agreed terms to merge in July.
• Boeing delivered 14 commercial jets in October, its lowest number since the pandemic, after a weeks-long strike halted most of its aircraft production. The planemaker’s deliveries last month were the lowest since November 2020 and well down from the 34 jets it handed over to customers during the same month in 2023. Striking machinists will return to work on November 5 but Boeing has warned it will be several weeks before aeroplane production gets fully under way.