FTC Finalizes Consent Order on Boeing’s $8.3 Billion Spirit AeroSystems Acquisition
Washington, D.C. — The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday finalized a consent order governing Boeing’s acquisition of Spirit AeroSystems, formally closing the regulatory chapter on an $8.3 billion deal that has reshaped the aerospace supply chain.
The order, which carries the force of law, locks in the antitrust conditions the FTC first proposed in December 2025. Boeing must divest Spirit’s Airbus-serving operations and its Subang, Malaysia, aerostructures business — requirements designed to prevent the planemaker from leveraging control over a critical supplier to disadvantage its European rival. Boeing completed the Spirit acquisition on Dec. 8, 2025, bringing roughly 15,000 employees and manufacturing operations across Wichita, Kansas; Dallas; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Prestwick, Scotland, under its corporate umbrella. The all-stock transaction valued Spirit’s equity at $4.7 billion, with Boeing assuming approximately $4 billion in debt for the full $8.3 billion price tag.
The deal reversed a 20-year outsourcing arrangement that began in 2005, when Boeing spun off its Wichita fuselage operations to create Spirit as an independent supplier. That model came under intense scrutiny after a series of quality lapses — most notably the January 2024 Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 door plug blowout, which federal investigators traced back to Spirit’s production line. CEO Kelly Ortberg called the reintegration “a pivotal moment in Boeing’s history.”
The FTC’s complaint alleged that without conditions, Boeing would gain the ability and incentive to degrade Airbus’s access to aerostructures that Spirit had long supplied — components for the A350, A220 and A321 programs. The agency also flagged concerns about Boeing potentially accessing Airbus’s proprietary technical information through the merged entity. Under the finalized order, Airbus took ownership of five Spirit facilities across France, Morocco, Northern Ireland, Scotland and the United States for $439 million, bringing more than 4,000 employees into the European manufacturer’s fold. Separately, Composites Technology Research Malaysia acquired Spirit’s Subang facility and its 1,000-plus workforce for $95.2 million.
Boeing is also required to continue supplying aerostructures and services to competing defense contractors for military aircraft programs. Berlin-based ALCIS Advisers was appointed as the independent monitor overseeing compliance, and the order carries a ten-year enforcement window. The commission voted 2-0 to accept the consent agreement. David J. Shaw, the FTC’s principal deputy director of the Bureau of Competition, framed the action in terms of both market integrity and national interest, noting the importance of maintaining competition in industries vital to commercial travelers and national defense.
Spirit’s commercial operations are now folding into Boeing Commercial Airplanes, covering fuselage production for the 737 and major structural work for the 767, 777 and 787 Dreamliner. The aftermarket business has moved under Boeing Global Services, while Spirit Defense operates as a standalone subsidiary under Boeing Defense, Space & Security with its own governance structure — a deliberate arrangement to preserve continuity for military customers. Signs at Spirit’s Wichita campus were already being swapped out by December, a symbolic end to the Air Capital’s independent identity under the Spirit brand. Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly and the state’s congressional delegation publicly welcomed Boeing’s return to the city it had departed more than a decade ago.
The finalization of the consent order removes one of the last procedural overhangs on Boeing’s most consequential strategic move in years. But the harder work — knitting together two manufacturing cultures, tightening quality controls across newly reabsorbed production lines, and ramping 737 output — remains very much ahead. Analysts expect the integration process to stretch well into 2026 and possibly beyond. For an industry still grappling with post-pandemic supply chain fragility and heightened regulatory scrutiny, the question isn’t whether Boeing was right to bring fuselage production back in-house. It’s whether the company can execute fast enough to make vertical integration the competitive advantage it’s betting on.
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