SEATTLE (Reuters) - Deliveries of new Boeing jets bounced back in December after a crippling labor strike that slowed production last fall, but the company's annual deliveries dropped in 2024 to the lowest level since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The company said on Tuesday that it delivered 348 commercial jets last year, down from 528 the previous year. New orders for jets in 2024 dropped to less than half as many as Boeing recorded one year earlier.  

The company also recorded 569 gross orders and 377 net orders after cancellations and conversions. 

Production quality issues, stricter regulatory scrutiny, supply chain delays and a seven-week strike slowed the U.S. planemaker's assembly lines. The company has taken a cautious approach to resuming production in the wake of the strike, which ended Nov. 5. Its 737 lines restarted in early December, as Reuters first reported. 

The company delivered 30 jets in December, including 17 737 MAX and 9 787s. The monthly total was up from the 13 in November and 14 in October.

For the year, Boeing delivered 260 737 MAX, 51 787s, 18 767s and 14 777s. 

Planemakers get most of their revenue when they deliver an airplane. New Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg told investors in October that he expects the company to continue to burn cash this year. 

Boeing's annual order tallies plummeted from 1,456 gross orders in 2023 to 569 in 2024 and from 1,314 net orders after cancellations and conversions to 377.

After also adjusting for accounting standards, Boeing booked 317 net orders last year.

The company recorded 142 gross orders in December, including 30 787 orders for flydubai and 100 737 MAX orders from Pegasus Airlines. The Turkish airline is a longtime Airbus customer.

The flydubai orders were first announced in November 2023 but not finalized until last month. 

Boeing in December also canceled 135 orders placed by India-based Jet Airways after India's highest court ordered the airline be liquidated, according to the planemaker. 

It ended the year with 6,245 unfilled orders and 5,595 orders in its official backlog, which is adjusted for accounting standards.  

The company was outpaced by its European rival, Airbus, which delivered 766 jets in 2024 and booked 826 net orders after cancellations and conversions. It was the sixth year in a row that Boeing has trailed Airbus.

(Reporting by Dan Catchpole in Seattle; Editing by Mark Porter)