Walkaround

Today in aviation

Program and production

Boeing posts its best MAX delivery run since 2017

161 commercial aircraft in the third quarter and 475 in the first nine months, up 8 percent year on year. The 363 MAX delivered from January to September is the highest for that period since deliveries began in 2017.

13 October 2026

A Boeing 737 MAX, for illustration. Not the aircraft in this story. Photo: AVA Navigate, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Boeing reported on 13 October 2026 that it delivered 161 commercial aircraft in the third quarter, taking the first nine months to 475, up about 8 percent year on year.

The quarter broke down as 124 737s, 22 787s, 10 767s and 5 777s. The headline number is the 737: 363 MAX delivered between January and September, the highest total for that period since MAX deliveries began in May 2017, and up from 325 a year earlier. Commercial backlog stood at 6,371 aircraft at the end of September.

Read that against what the company has been saying about rate. Chief executive Kelly Ortberg told investors in September that Boeing was still not stable at 47 single aisle aircraft per month, naming its own Renton wing operation as the constraint. Deliveries are a different measure from production rate, and a quarter can be flattered by working down stored inventory, so a record delivery run and an unstable production line are not contradictory.

These figures are preliminary until Boeing reports third quarter financial results on 27 October 2026.

In plain terms

Deliveries count aircraft handed to customers. Rate counts aircraft coming off the line. A manufacturer with a backlog of finished but undelivered aircraft can deliver more than it builds for a while, which is why the two numbers can move in different directions.

Sources