Boeing has officially closed its long-planned acquisition of Spirit AeroSystems, bringing its once-spun-off aerostructures business back in-house in a transaction valued at about $8.3 billion including assumed debt. The deal, completed on December 8, gives Boeing control of most of Spirit’s Boeing-related operations and marks one of the biggest realignments of the commercial aviation supply chain in years.

How the deal came together

Spirit AeroSystems was created in 2005 when Boeing sold its Wichita, Kansas division to private investors, turning a captive in-house unit into an independent supplier that went on to build major structures for both Boeing and Airbus. Over time, Spirit became heavily dependent on Boeing programs such as the 737 and 787, and its fortunes sank as Boeing battled the fallout from two 737 MAX crashes and subsequent groundings.

Those stresses intensified after a January 2024 incident in which a door plug panel blew out on an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9. The fuselage and door plug had been built at Spirit and then worked on at a Boeing facility; the event exposed serious quality-control lapses and triggered deeper regulatory scrutiny of both firms.

Against that backdrop, Boeing and Spirit began formal talks in early 2024. On July 1, 2024, Boeing announced an all-stock agreement to acquire Spirit for $37.25 per share—about a 30% premium to Spirit’s pre-rumor trading price. The equity value of the deal is roughly $4.7 billion, rising to about $8.3 billion when Spirit’s debt is included. Spirit shareholders approved the transaction in January 2025, but closing was pushed into late 2025 as regulators in the U.S., U.K. and European Union examined the competitive impact on both commercial and defense markets.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission ultimately cleared the deal on December 3, but only after ordering Boeing and Spirit to divest several Spirit operations—particularly those that supply Airbus—and to maintain fair access for defense rivals to certain aerostructures and services. The transaction formally closed five days later.

What it means for Boeing and Spirit

For Boeing, the acquisition is a reversal of an earlier outsourcing strategy and a bet that tighter vertical integration will finally stabilize production and repair its battered safety reputation. Spirit’s Boeing-related factories, including key sites in Wichita and Tulsa, will be folded into Boeing’s Commercial Airplanes division, while aftermarket work will move under Boeing Global Services. A separate “Spirit Defense” organization will handle defense and space programs to ensure continuity for military customers.

Spirit, which has struggled with heavy leverage, uneven cash flow and chronic quality issues, effectively loses its independence but gains the backing of a much larger balance sheet and direct access to Boeing’s internal quality systems. Roughly 15,000 Spirit employees will transfer to Boeing and around 4,000 to Airbus as the company is carved up between the two major aircraft makers.

Financially, Boeing will assume several billion dollars of Spirit’s debt and related obligations, as well as a payment—reported in the hundreds of millions of dollars—to Airbus to offset losses at some of the transferred facilities. Spirit shareholders, meanwhile, are cashed out of their standalone holding and receive Boeing stock under a fixed exchange ratio; Spirit shares will be delisted from the NYSE.

Airbus and the wider airline industry

Because Spirit had become a linchpin supplier to both halves of the Boeing-Airbus duopoly, regulators were especially sensitive to the idea of Boeing controlling parts that go into Airbus jets. The solution was a three-way split: Boeing is taking the operations tied to its own programs, Airbus is acquiring Spirit sites that build major A220, A320 and A350 components, and certain Malaysian and specialty materials businesses are being sold to third parties.

For airlines, the near-term impact is mostly indirect. The MAX groundings and more recent quality issues at both Boeing and Spirit have disrupted deliveries, delayed fleet plans and raised costs across the industry. By re-absorbing Spirit and giving Airbus control of the Airbus-related work, the two big manufacturers are trying to simplify decision-making, tighten quality control and reduce the risk of supplier-driven bottlenecks over the medium term.

However, the consolidation also means one of the world’s largest independent aerostructures suppliers disappears as a standalone competitor. Regulators have attempted to blunt that risk by forcing Boeing and Spirit to keep supplying rival defense contractors on nondiscriminatory terms and by monitoring compliance, but the balance of power in large aircraft structures now sits even more firmly with Boeing and Airbus.

Over time, if integration goes smoothly, airlines could benefit from more reliable delivery schedules and fewer surprise quality issues on Boeing programs, especially the 737 and 787. If it goes poorly, the industry could face a different kind of risk: a single point of failure concentrated inside Boeing rather than at an outside supplier.

Boeing’s strategy: safety, stability and control

Boeing has framed the Spirit deal as part of a broader turnaround focused on safety and operational discipline rather than pure cost-cutting. In its announcement of the closing, the company said the acquisition “underscores [its] commitment to aviation safety and airplane quality while strengthening commercial production and supply chain stability.”

Practically, that means:

• Bringing critical work back under Boeing’s own quality systems. Spirit builds the 737 MAX fuselage, major 787 structures and other components that are central to Boeing’s production and to several military derivatives. By controlling those lines directly, Boeing is betting it can better coordinate design changes, inspections and rework rather than negotiating everything across a corporate boundary.
• Simplifying a fragile supply chain. Boeing has repeatedly cited supply-chain instability as a key constraint on its ability to ramp aircraft output and generate cash. Reintegration of a major Tier-1 supplier is intended to reduce those external choke points, even if it increases complexity inside Boeing.
• Absorbing debt now for potential margin upside later. Boeing will carry some of Spirit’s legacy debt and integration costs in the near term but is targeting improved margins and stronger free cash flow later this decade as production normalizes and rework falls. Management has previously outlined goals for positive free cash flow and higher deliveries in 2026, and analysts generally view the Spirit deal as consistent with that trajectory—if execution and regulatory compliance stay on track.

How Boeing’s stock is reacting – and what’s expected

Boeing shares have been volatile throughout 2025 as the company tries to balance higher jet demand with ongoing production and legal issues. The announcement that the Spirit acquisition had closed gave the stock a short-term boost of about 2% in early trading, according to multiple reports, before broader concerns about delivery numbers and integration costs pulled it back.

Right now, Boeing is trading around $200 per share on the NYSE, after a sizable rally from its lows earlier in the year and a recent pullback tied to production and financial updates.

Spirit’s own stock effectively disappears in this transaction: each Spirit share has been converted into a fraction of a Boeing share under a fixed exchange ratio, and SPR will no longer trade as an independent listing.

On the outlook, most commentary from ratings agencies and equity analysts frames the Spirit deal as a long-term operational positive but a near-term financial and execution challenge. The logic is straightforward:

• Reintegrating Spirit should, in theory, improve product quality and give Boeing more control over its most critical bottlenecks.
• At the same time, Boeing must absorb additional debt, integration costs, heavy capital needs and intense regulatory oversight, all while proving it can consistently hit delivery and cash-flow targets.

Because of those cross-currents, many analysts are describing the stock’s path from here as bumpy rather than linear. The general expectation is that if Boeing can show tangible improvements in safety metrics, rework rates and production stability over the next few years, the Spirit acquisition could support better margins and a stronger investment case. If not, the deal risks becoming another source of financial strain layered on top of an already complex turnaround.