Aircraft have high design costs (figure for the '87 is above), but the actual manufacturing costs should be ... somewhat reasonable. I have a hard time imagining Boeing would be selling the aircraft if they weren't recovering their marginal costs.
The "never make a profit" line is probably a tax-deferral strategy which is reflected by their stock price increasing ~100% in the past 5 years. Not exactly the performance you'd expect of a floundering company.
[1] http://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/will-7...