Boeing Co’s largest airline client in China has canceled more than 100 737 Max planes from its fleet plans, citing delivery uncertainties.
At an investor event, China Southern Airlines Co Chairman Ma Xu Lun stated that Boeing’s upgraded best-selling aircraft will be banned from fleet deliveries until 2024. The airline anticipates taking possession of 78 aircraft during the time, down from 181 in a prior prediction in March.
The airline’s investor relations official stated that the Max was not included because to “uncertainty around the delivery,” but provided no additional specifics.
The decision is a remarkable reversal for China Southern, which had said in its annual report in March that 39 737 Max aircraft were slated to arrive this year, with a total of 103 deliveries planned through 2024. It’s a reminder of the uncertainty that has engulfed a vital market for Boeing as it tries to recoup money on more than 300 Max jets that were manufactured but never delivered due to a global grounding.
None of China’s state-owned carriers have stated whether or not they would begin taking the Max once it is officially reinstated. Following deadly incidents in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed 346 people, China was the first to ground the Max in March 2019. Before a Covid epidemic destroyed air travel in China earlier this year, Boeing’s chief financial officer, Brian West, stated that Max planes were on the verge of returning to regular airline operation.
“Great progress was made with the local staff, Chinese customers, and Chinese authorities.” “They were ticking all the boxes, and then Covid came in with other rules and limits,” West said at a Goldman Sachs conference. “We expect that once they are back and focused on this, they will continue up just where we left off,” he added, with deliveries soon following.
China Southern predicted that by 2019, it will be flying 523 planes from Boeing’s narrowbody family, the majority of which would be Max aircraft. According to the airline’s most recent annual report, the airline has 399 Boeing narrowbodies by the end of 2021.