Boeing's deliveries of aircraft to China were delayed

Observer.com

2024-05-23 18:43Posted on the official account of Shanghai Observer.com

On the 22nd local time, Reuters, citing a source familiar with the matter, reported that Boeing has postponed the delivery of aircraft to China in recent weeks, waiting for the relevant Chinese regulatory authorities to complete the review of the aircraft cockpit voice recorder (CVR) battery.

The U.S. aircraft maker said in a statement that it is finalizing a new delivery time for Chinese customers as the Civil Aviation Administration of China completes an inspection of the 25-hour cockpit voice recorder battery.

Boeing also said that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has certified the voice recorder system, which can store more data than previous earlier versions, and has been approved by European regulators.

"We are complying with the discussions between the NASA and the Civil Aviation Administration of China on this regulatory issue," Boeing said.

As of now, the NASA has not immediately responded to the matter, and it is unclear how long the review will last or the extent of its impact on Boeing's delivery targets, Reuters said.

Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft/data map from surging images

Boeing reportedly noted in a late 2023 filing that it has about 140 737 MAX 8 aircraft in stock, 85 of which are for Chinese customers. As of the end of April this year, Boeing has delivered 22 aircraft to Chinese customers, but due to the aforementioned review, Boeing has not delivered any new aircraft to Chinese customers in recent weeks.

Last month, Boeing's chief financial officer, Brian West, told investors that Boeing still expects to "deliver most of its inventory by the end of the year." According to the report, the reason why aircraft deliveries will be closely watched by Wall Street is that aircraft manufacturers are able to recover most of the money when they deliver the aircraft to customers.

Reuters mentioned that five years ago, China, a key market, closed its doors to Boeing due to concerns about the safety of the 737 MAX model. The Boeing 737 MAX has also been grounded in many countries and regions around the world for nearly two years. Since then, rival Airbus has not only continued to expand its market share, but its share price has risen by 25 percent, while Boeing's share price has fallen by more than 40 percent.

The grounding of the 737 MAX affected Boeing's overall performance in 2019, with it reversing its ranking with rival Airbus in terms of aircraft deliveries. In July last year, China's three major airline groups (China Southern Airlines, Air China, and China Eastern Airlines) ordered 292 Airbus aircraft in one go, which was considered a "huge shock" to Boeing.

Until the end of last year, Boeing was revealed to have received a key approval from China's aviation regulator, saying that it was "one step closer" to resuming deliveries of the 737 MAX family of aircraft to China.

On January 24, local time, Boeing delivered the first 737 MAX passenger aircraft to China Southern Airlines since March 2019, ending the company's best-selling aircraft products in the past five years of trade freeze with China, which also means that it is possible that Boeing will be able to deliver the backlog of aircraft orders to China.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular press conference at the time that on December 8, 2023, the Chinese authorities completed the design approval of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 in accordance with China's civil aviation regulations, and the aircraft is ready for delivery.

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