Boeing Corp. will resume aircraft deliveries to Chinese airlines sometime during June, according to CEO Kelly Ortberg’s remarks to an investor conference, on May 29. Such a development would be significant to the aircraft builder’s earnings, which are impacted by its inability to collect the revenue products completed but undelivered to buyers.
The CEO also forecast that Boeing soon will increase its production rate for 737 MAX jets to 42 per month, with Federal Aviation Administration approval. Since last year the FAA has set the rate at 38 jets/month, to ensure that safety and quality-control standards are maintained.
Ortberg held out the further possibility that Boeing could increase the rate to 47 jets/month later this year.
The issue of incomplete deliveries to customers in China has beset Boeing for several years. Following the grounding of the 737 MAX aircraft during 2019-2020, civil authorities around the world renewed the aircraft’s flight certification during the first half of 2021 – except in China. The Civil Aviation Administration of China withheld that certification from Chinese carriers until 2022, and the deliveries did not resume until 2023.
The agency put another stop on deliveries of 737 MAX and 787 Dreamliners in 2024 to investigate a failure in the jets’ lithium-ion batteries powering cockpit voice recorders. That suspension ran in parallel to the worsening trade relations between China and the U.S. during the past 12 months.
Currently, Boeing lists a total of 128 outstanding orders for Chinese customers, including 95 737 MAX single-aisle jets, 22 777 long-range aircraft, and 11 wide-body 787 Dreamliners.
Ortberg also told the investor conference that the OEM’s 737 MAX 7 and MAX 10 aircraft variants are on track for FAA certification by the end of 2025.
