Boeing throws Spirit $350 million lifeline to support output

Boeing Co. will advance Spirit Aerosystems Holdings Inc. as much as $350 million as the planemaker gives its most important supplier a financial lifeline ahead of the planned purchase of the company.

The advances will be used to support production and readiness to make Boeing aircraft at the rates required by the U.S. planemaker, according to a stock exchange filing on Tuesday. The money must be repaid to Boeing by the end 2026, according to the filing.

Spirit this month said that a slowdown in deliveries to Boeing had impacted its liquidity and cash flow, leading to a “substantial doubt” about the aerospace supplier’s ability to continue to as a going concern. The company cited several factors, including the planemaker’s refusal to accept 737 Max fuselage sections from Spirit that need additional work in Boeing facilities, and the seven-week strike by 33,000 Boeing factory workers that just ended.

As a result, Spirit expects to burn through as much as $500 million in free cash from the fourth quarter of this year through the second quarter of 2025. The company also supplies parts to Airbus SE and Bombardier Inc.

Boeing has previously advanced cash to Spirit to keep it afloat. In April, the planemaker agreed to inject $425 million into the supplier. Boeing is due to acquire Wichita, Kansas-based Spirit in an all-stock deal that valued the supplier at $4.7 billion.

The transaction, which reverses a split from the company almost two decades ago, is scheduled to close in mid-2025. As part of the deal, Airbus will also take over parts of Spirit that make components for its aircraft, and the European planemaker will pay a nominal price of $1 for the assets, while receiving $559 million in compensation.

Boeing’s move to bring back Spirit into its fold came in the wake of the near catastrophic accident on Jan. 5, in which a fuselage that had been assembled by Spirit lost a door-shaped panel during flight. That mishap triggered a chain reaction at Boeing, which has seen a wholesale management shakeup, federal investigations, and scrutiny from regulators.

Spirit is a key supplier for the 737, 787 Dreamliner and other Boeing commercial jets.