It is reported that deliveries of Boeing 777 and 787 wide-body aircraft should begin to China in the coming days, and 737 MAX narrow-body aircraft will begin delivery in July this year.
According to Reuters sources, Boeing has reached an agreement with the Civil Aviation Administration of China to deliver commercial aircraft to its customers in China. Previously, deliveries of Boeing commercial aircraft in China had been suspended in early May due to a review of the batteries used in the cockpit voice recorders. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) states that the battery provides up to 25 hours of recording time, an increase of 2 hours from the previous one. From the beginning of 2024 to the end of April, Boeing delivered a total of 22 aircraft to China.
Boeing said it expects to resume deliveries of the 777 and 787 wide-body aircraft in China first, with deliveries of the 737 MAX expected to begin in July. The 737 MAX is Boeing's "cash cow" and its current backlog of aircraft to China. In an exclusive interview with Chinese media on May 30, Boeing China President Liu Qing revealed that Boeing has begun to resume deliveries of new aircraft to the Chinese market, including the 737 MAX and 787 aircraft, and that it has recently "progressed very well and very smoothly".
There are currently 140 737 MAX aircraft in storage in the United States awaiting delivery. Of these, 85 belonged to Chinese airlines.
Due to the MAX 9 aircraft door drop incident in January of this year, the 737 MAX production was severely limited by the FAA. Boeing's pace of commercial aircraft deliveries this year is significantly slower than in 2023, with only 131 commercial aircraft delivered as of May. This represents a decrease of 36.4% compared to the first five months of last year.
China was the first to ground Boeing's 737 MAX after two crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. It wasn't until January that Boeing resumed deliveries of the 737 MAX to Chinese airlines.
Intermittent and twists and turns, but Boeing's delivery in China is not easy. This also fully demonstrates the importance of commercial aircraft safety. "Once bitten by a snake, ten years afraid of the well rope", once the aircraft has a major safety incident, the impact is extremely bad, the manufacturer is likely to collapse.