Is Boeing coming back into the game?

✈️ A question that on Wall Street now sounds almost rhetorical. But the latest news is forcing the market to at least lift its head and look toward the American aviation giant that has gone through several difficult years.

After a prolonged decline, Boeing (BA) shares have finally shown an increase of about 2% amid two major military contracts from the Pentagon worth more than 7 billion dollars. For a company that in recent years has gotten used to headlines about delays, fines, and quality issues, this is a rare moment of sunshine.

What exactly happened:
The U.S. Army ordered an additional batch of Apache AH-64E attack helicopters along with simulators worth about 4.7 billion dollars.
The Air Force placed an order for 15 new KC-46A Pegasus aerial refuelers for almost 2.5 billion dollars.

These figures are impressive on their own, but the signal they send to the market is far more important. The Pentagon continues to trust Boeing despite a chain of production problems, delays, and high-profile investigations in recent years. This is the support that has always helped the company weather difficult periods, and it seems it hasn’t gone anywhere.

Why this matters in a broader context:
In recent years, Boeing has accumulated a whole baggage of reputational and operational problems.
Delays on the 777X project continue and may turn into new financial hits.
The company has already paid more than 5 billion dollars in fines related to production and certification issues.
Since the beginning of 2024, Boeing shares have lost about 30 percent and have closed lower for three consecutive months.

While the S&P 500 has added around 16 percent and Airbus has risen nearly 47 percent, Boeing managed to climb only about 5 percent for the year.

The comparison does not favor the American manufacturer, but the market always looks at prospects, not past mistakes.

And here it gets more interesting.
Boeing’s suppliers are growing noticeably faster than Boeing itself:
Woodward (WWD) has added about 75 percent since the beginning of the year,
GE Aerospace shows similar growth,
Rolls Royce has risen almost 95 percent.

The strategy of investors to “buy those who stand behind Boeing but receive money from it” is starting to look even more logical than betting on Boeing itself. Suppliers react more quickly, and their growth partly reflects expectations of Boeing’s production recovery.

But it’s too early to talk about a full comeback for Boeing.
Pentagon contracts are a good sign, but not a cure-all.
Problems with the 777X still weigh on market sentiment.
The company is significantly behind Airbus, which continues to lead confidently both commercially and in investor perception.

And here is the key question: can Boeing catch up with its competitor in the coming years?

The answer depends on three factors:
how quickly the company can stabilize production;
whether it can reverse its reputational decline;
and whether it can restore delivery rates to pre-crisis levels.

Boeing’s history shows that the company knows how to come back after difficult periods, but the path back to leadership is longer and harder than ever. For investors this is more a game of patience than an attempt to catch a fast reversal.

🔍 And yet there is a sense that Boeing, slowly but surely, is beginning to rise to its feet. For now, it is a modest but important step toward recovery. And whether the company can once again breathe down Airbus’s neck is a question that in the coming years will become one of the most intriguing rivalries in global aviation.