Boeing‘s chief financial officer warned investors that the company will expend more cash than expected in the first quarter as the planemaker grapples with lawsuits and production delays. 

Boeing is expected to spend between $4 billion and $4.5 billion, which is “higher than we originally planned back in January,” CFO Brian West told investors at a Bank of America conference on Wednesday. 

Analysts initially anticipated that Boeing would have a $1 billion negative cash flow in the first quarter; now they are predicting about a $5 billion positive cash flow for 2024, the Wall Street Journal reported. 

Following the Jan. 5 Alaska Airlines door plug blowout, Boeing’s stock fell, though it had never truly recovered to numbers before two deadly plane crashes in 2018 and 2019. 

“We’re deliberately going to slow to get this right, and we’re the ones who made the decision to constrain rates on the 737 program below 38 per month until we feel like we’re ready,” West said. “And we’ll feel the impact of that over the next several months.” 

As a result of MAX safety concerns, West said there will be fewer plane deliveries and production, which means that the company will need more time to hit its cash flow goal of $10 billion by 2025 or 2026. 

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Boeing’s string of production failures have resulted in intense public and regulatory scrutiny over the quality of the company’s planes, leading to investigations by the National Transportation Safety Board and the Department of Justice, in addition to an audit by the Federal Aviation Administration. 

A top FAA administrator told NBC Tuesday, “​​They need to make safe airplanes, or they will be capped at a production level that’s not sustainable,” following the agency’s report that found Boeing failed 33 product audits and observed employees using dish soap and a hotel key card to assemble the planes.