Boeing on Wednesday reported its first annual loss since 1997 as costs from the worldwide grounding of the 737 MAX plane rose sharply.

The aircraft manufacturer lost $636 million in 2019 compared with a profit of $10.46 billion in 2018. It also lost its ranking as the world's largest aircraft manufacturer to European rival Airbus.

"We recognize we have a lot of work to do," CEO David Calhoun said in a statement accompanying Boeing's earnings report. "We are focused on returning the 737 MAX to service safely and restoring the long-standing trust that the Boeing brand represents with the flying public."

Boeing's stock has fallen about 25 percent since March 2019, when the MAX was grounded, but rose Wednesday as investors bet the company will overcome its problems. Shares closed on the New York Stock Exchange at $322.02, up $5.46, or 1.72 percent. The stock hit an intraday high of $327.17.

Robert Mann, president of R.W. Mann & Co, an aviation consulting firm in Port Washington, New York, said that if the MAX is recertified in a timely manner, the company can recover.

"The Federal Aviation Administration said it's comfortable with progress being made," Mann said. "That's good because they didn't say that a month ago. If the European Union Safety Agency, China and other regulators say the same thing, that would be even better. Ultimately, the MAX will be recertified, and planes will be delivered from inventory in early 2021."

Analysts agreed that Boeing must strive to rebuild its reputation.

"If I were a stockholder, I'd be concerned about Boeing's executive leadership and whether it's taken adequate steps to address past mistakes," James Hall, managing partner of Hall and Associates in Washington and former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, told China Daily.

"I hope Calhoun will address those obvious flaws and the company's failure to listen to the safety concerns of its employees. I'm hopeful that will happen — and concerned about working people who have lost their jobs because of the failure and greed of people at the top."

Mann also said that the aircraft industry must understand that it is moving into markets where pilots may not have a great deal of experience.

"I think Calhoun made it clear that the plane's design, while safe, perhaps did not reflect the low experience of some pilots who might fly the aircraft," he told China Daily.

In 1997, Boeing reported its first loss in nearly 40 years stemming from production problems in the 737 and 747 jets and the cost of inventory acquired in its $16.3 billion merger with McDonnell Douglas.

Total costs from the MAX's grounding are now about $19 billion, or twice the amount Boeing initially anticipated.

Boeing set aside an additional $9.2 billion in fiscal year 2019 to cover expected compensation to airlines that canceled flights normally handled by MAX aircraft. The company temporarily halted production of the plane earlier this month and expects to spend heavily to restart the line this summer.

Boeing has set aside $100 million to compensate family members of the 346 people killed in crashes in Indonesia in October 2018, and in Ethiopia in March 2019.

Boeing had completed about new 400 MAXs but couldn't deliver them after 380 jets in commercial service were grounded worldwide.

Investigators believe the MAX's automated anti-stall device, called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MACS), erroneously pointed the nose of the planes down to avoid a midair stall and into a fatal plunge. Boeing has updated the system's software, but the FAA hasn't yet approved it.

Boeing hopes the MAX will be recertified this summer, but it will take months to get the grounded aircraft back in the air. In a reversal, the company said pilots should receive flight-simulator training before flying the MAX. But it's unclear if there are enough of the ground-based, computer-driven mockups of the jet's cockpit to meet a surge in demand — and that could delay the plane's return to service.

Boeing has not furloughed any workers. But some of its subcontractors — most notably Spirit AeroSystems, which builds fuselages for the MAX — earlier this month cut 2,800 jobs when production was halted. General Electric, which builds the engines for the MAX, laid off 70 temporary workers earlier this month.

Boeing announced that it will cut production of its wide-body 787 Dreamliner to 12 jets a month from 14 later this year and to 10 in 2021, before returning to 12 in 2023. Analysts said the production cut appears to reflect reduced orders from China.

Nevertheless, the Chicago-based company said it has orders for about 5,400 planes valued at $377 billion. But overall, commercial jet deliveries declined to 380 last year from 806 in 2018.

Earlier this month, Boeing completed the first test flight of its wide-body, fuel-efficient 777X. Boeing has received orders for 340 planes from Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Etihad, Lufthansa, Qatar and Singapore airlines. Boeing expects to deliver the first plane in 2021.

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