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Dec 9, 2025
Boeing finalizes $4.7B acquisition of key 737 Max supplier Spirit AeroSystems
Seattle Pi
Boeing said Monday that it has completed a $4.7 billion purchase of key supplier Spirit AeroSystems, which builds fuselages for the giant aerospace company's 737 Max jetliners, including an Alaska Airlines aircraft that suffered a door-panel blowout last year.
The deal, in the works for over a year, brings Boeing's largest provider of spare parts in-house. CEO Kelly Ortberg called it a "pivotal moment" for the company's future.
"As we welcome our new teammates and bring our two companies together, our focus is on maintaining stability so we can continue delivering high quality airplanes, differentiated services, and advanced defense capabilities for our customers and the industry," Ortberg said in a statement.
Boeing previously owned Wichita, Kansas-based Spirit but spun it off in 2005. Reabsorbing the company, which is not related to Spirit Airlines, reverses a longtime Boeing strategy of outsourcing major work on its passenger planes, an approach that faced mounting criticism in recent years as manufacturing problems at Spirit disrupted production and delivery of popular Boeing jetliners, including 737s and 787s.
When Boeing announced in July 2024 that it planned to reacquire Spirit, it positioned the move as a step toward improving quality and safety. Concerns about safety came to a head almost six months earlier, after the door panel flew off the Alaska Airlines plane as it traveled 16,000 feet (4,876 meters) over Oregon.
The mishap left a gaping hole in the side of the jetliner, but no one was seriously injured. Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board later said that four bolts that help secure door panels were missing from the Alaska jet after repair work at a Boeing factory.
The finding renewed questions about Boeing's safety culture and came as the company confronted an ongoing criminal case over two earlier fatal crashes involving its Max jetliners.
Those crashes, which happened off the coast of Indonesia and in Ethiopia less than
