Boeing has finally won approval for the largest member of its MAX family of single-aisle jets, the plane that airlines have been waiting on for years, and the division that builds its passenger planes is still losing money. The company’s own accounts show the airliner business back in the red at the very moment its order book reaches the biggest size in its history.

That gap matters to anyone who books a flight. Carriers from United Airlines to Ryanair have built their growth plans around Boeing jets that keep arriving late, and every year of delay means fewer new seats in the sky and less pressure on fares.

A record order book that still loses money

Boeing Commercial Airplanes lost $697 million from operations in the third quarter, an operating margin of minus 6.5%, as its revenue slipped 3% to $10.7 billion. It delivered 161 jets, one more than a year earlier. Boeing blamed a less favorable mix of deliveries, higher projected costs tied to future changes in production rates and higher estimated supply-chain costs.

Across the whole company, revenue rose 4% to $24.2 billion and the net loss narrowed to $116 million, from $5.3 billion a year earlier, when a charge on the delayed 777X wide-body sank the quarter. Demand is not the problem. Total backlog reached a record $745 billion, including more than 6,300 commercial airplanes worth $612 billion, and the unit booked 300 net orders from carriers including Turkish Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines and Lufthansa. Even at the pace Boeing is aiming for, 47 737s and eight 787s a month, a simple division puts that queue at the better part of a decade.

Why the 737 MAX 10 matters to passengers

The MAX 10 is the stretched member of the family, with room for up to 230 passengers, and Boeing’s answer to the Airbus A321neo. Boeing says it holds 1,555 orders for the model from more than 30 customers, over 30% of its unfilled MAX orders, with United, Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, Alaska Airlines and Ryanair among the buyers. Boeing claims it has the lowest per-seat operating cost of any single-aisle jet in service, which is the pitch: more seats from the same airport slot and the same two pilots.

The jet was originally meant to enter service in 2020. Its certification slowed after two MAX 8 crashes killed 346 people, and later over an engine anti-ice problem. The MAX 10 adds an enhanced angle-of-attack system built to flag faulty sensor readings, the failure behind both crashes, which Boeing says will become standard across MAX production. The approval is a US certification; airlines in Europe, Ryanair included, also need the jet validated by the EU Aviation Safety Agency, a separate process.

What the turnaround has not fixed

The skeptical reading sits in the cash. Free cash flow was $464 million on $24.2 billion of revenue, and over nine months Boeing still burned $359 million. Operating cash flow included about $0.7 billion of Department of Justice settlement payments, and the company carries $45.9 billion of debt against $20.7 billion of cash and investments.

The rest of the quarter leaned on other businesses. Defense, Space and Security posted a 6.2% margin, helped by a $252 million gain on the sale of HRL Laboratories, while Global Services earned just over $1 billion. Chief executive Kelly Ortberg called the 737-7 and 737-10 certifications important steps, then added: “But we are not done.”

The FAA certified the MAX 10 on October 20, and Boeing says deliveries will begin in the coming months. The company reported the results on October 27 and said the 777X remains on track for a first delivery in 2027, while the 787 holds at eight a month. The US Navy’s selection of Boeing for the F/A-XX fighter is not yet counted in backlog, pending a review of the source selection.

Boeing now has every version of the 737 MAX approved and more airlines than ever waiting in line. What it still lacks is a way to build airliners at a profit.

Tags: Boeing, 737 MAX 10, commercial aviation, FAA, Kelly Ortberg, quarterly results