The aim of this paper is to show some features of aircraft stringer panels load bearing capacity estimation, associated with carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) application. Skin local buckling is commonly allowed for fuselage and tail panels, provided their strength up to the ultimate load level. This makes it possible to increase the weight efficiency of panels and a whole structure. For metal alloy panels, methods for accounting for skin local buckling are well established and are widely used in engineering practice. In general, these methods consist of reduction factors calculation that characterizing the degree of skin stiffness decrease in the postbuckling state, and assess the strength and global buckling of the panel under these conditions. However, direct application of these methods to CFRP panels in some cases lead to incorrect results. This applies both to the calculation methods, the strength criteria, and the methods of obtained results analysis. This is demonstrated with virtual simulation of stringer CFRP panels’ uniaxial compression and shear tests. Analytical methods as well as numerical methods were used for analysis. Paper contains models, calculation and analysis procedures that allow estimating panel load bearing capacity under strength and global bulking conditions for both, isolated compression, shear loading and there combination. A comparison of the calculated and available experimental data on the failure loads is given. It is shown for the panel under consideration that the main factor determinates its’ load capacity is the skin postbuckling strength.