Shares in the company rose 6.3% on Wednesday. Boeing’s bullish outlook reflects the continued growth of airlines, particularly in Asia, even as other sectors of the global economy show signs of strain. The World Bank this month cut its forecast for global growth in 2019, citing trade tensions and currency gyrations among other pressures. Slower economic growth, especially in China, is hurting some manufacturers and consumer-products companies.
Growth in air travel, by contrast, remains strong. World-wide passenger traffic increased 6.6% through November last year, Boeing Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg said Wednesday, more than double the rate at which the World Bank says the global economy expanded in 2018.
“We just see fundamental aerospace growth and air-traffic growth as a long-term, sustainable trend,” Mr. Muilenburg said Wednesday in a call with analysts and reporters.
Mr. Muilenburg said Boeing’s order volume could moderate this year, adding that the company expects customers in China to adjust the timing of some orders. “We continue to see strong demand in China overall,” he said.
Christian Scherer, chief salesman for Boeing rival
SE, said this month that demand from China and India had moderated slightly, but pressure to boost production of Airbus’s popular A320 single-aisle jet persisted.
Mr. Muilenburg also said Wednesday that Boeing could decide in 2020 to launch its first newly designed jetliner since the 787 Dreamliner, after a potential move this year to start formal talks with customers. A separate deal to take over the commercial-jet business of
Embraer
SA
is expected to close this year, pushing Boeing into the market for making regional jets.
Boeing’s fourth-quarter profit rose 3% to $3.4 billion, or $5.93 a share, from $3.3 billion, or $5.49 a share, a year earlier. Excluding pension costs, per-share earnings of $5.48 beat estimates of $4.58, according to FactSet. Revenue of $101 billion in all of 2018 was a record high.
Boeing’s estimate-beating earnings and optimistic 2019 outlook reflected higher volumes across its airliner, defense and services businesses. They also signal that the Chicago-based manufacturer is confident it can overcome supplier constraints that at times hobbled production in 2018.
Boeing executives said they were still playing catch-up on 737 production after those delays. To help speed up engine deliveries, the manufacturer is dispatching staff to CFM International—the engine-making joint venture of
Safran
SA
and
General Electric
Co.
—and some of its suppliers to help get back on schedule.
“We still have work to do inside our own factories and in our supply chain,” Mr. Muilenburg said.
Boeing plans to increase production of the Dreamliner as well as its workhorse narrow-body 737 airliners as it addresses the supply bottlenecks.
Boeing’s overall operating-profit margin hit 14.7% in the fourth quarter, up from 12% a year earlier, in line with the company’s targets. Operating-profit margin in the commercial airplane business jumped 4 percentage points to 15.6%. Boeing’s backlog stood at 5,900 airplanes valued at $412 billion.
Charges have weighed on the defense and space unit that generates about one-quarter of Boeing’s revenue as the company has invested to restore its growth potential, bidding aggressively to win three big Pentagon contests last year. Those contracts, its first victories since 2011, were to build refueling drones, trainer jets, and helicopters to protect nuclear bases.
Boeing is vying with
Northrop Grumman
Corp.
for a contract to replace the land-based U.S. intercontinental-missile fleet.
The Pentagon is expected to award a contract as early as this year.
Write to Andrew Tangel at Andrew.Tangel@wsj.com and Doug Cameron at doug.cameron@wsj.com