Boeing records zero new 737 MAX orders following worldwide groundings
- Model was aerospace giant’s fastest selling plane before the March 10 Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed all 157 people on board
- Total orders fell to 95 aircraft in the first quarter from 180, suggesting airlines are taking a watch-and-wait approach amid Boeing’s worse crisis
Boeing Co’s orders and deliveries sank in the first quarter, with zero new orders for the 737 MAX following a worldwide grounding in March in the wake of two fatal plane crashes.
The groundings forced Boeing to freeze deliveries of the MAX, which had been its fastest-selling jet until a March 10 crash on Ethiopian Airlines that killed all 157 people on board, just five months after a similar crash on Lion Air that killed all 189 passengers and crew.
Total orders, an indication of future demand, fell to 95 aircraft in the first quarter from 180 a year earlier, suggesting a watch-and-wait approach for airlines as Boeing rides out the worst crisis in its history.
Still, Boeing is ahead of its European rival Airbus, which last week said it had won 62 gross orders during the first three months of 2019, but some 120 cancellations left it with a negative net order.
Chicago-based Boeing’s first-quarter 737 deliveries tumbled about 33 per cent, pushing total aircraft deliveries down 19 per cent to 149 from a year earlier. Boeing delivered just 11 MAX planes in March before the suspension.
Deliveries are financially important because that is when planemakers receive the bulk of money from airlines’ purchases.