A Boeing 737 MAX is sitting outside the hangar during a media tour of the Boeing 737 MAX at the Boeing plant in Renton, Washington.
Matt Mills | Reuters
Boeing said Tuesday it delivered 22 aircraft to buyers in August, as it revived domestic 737 Max travel deliveries, and received orders for seven 787s, although the program for that aircraft remains hampered by default. industrial.
The closely monitored monthly order and delivery snapshot comes when Boeing makes an offer to recover billions of dollars in lost sales from the coronavirus pandemic and go beyond the safety scandal caused by two fatal crashes of the 737 Max.
Of the 22 airliners delivered to airlines and other buyers last month, 14 were 737 Max aircraft and two were P-8 maritime patrol aircraft. The remaining six aircraft were large bodies, including three KC-46 tankers for the United States Air Force.
For this year, Boeing has delivered 206 aircraft.
European rival Airbus delivered 40 aircraft in August to bring supplies of its new aircraft to 384 since the beginning of the year, generally staying on track to reach the annual target of 600 deliveries, which would preserve the his crown as the number 1 aircraft manufacturer.
By the end of August, gross orders for Boeing aircraft had risen to 683, 53 more than in July. Considering canceled orders or cases in which a buyer converted an order to a different model, Boeing sold 280 aircraft.
In comparison, Airbus sold 269 aircraft during the first eight months of the year, or 132 after cancellations.
Deliveries are economically important to aircraft manufacturers because airlines pay most of the purchase price when they actually receive the aircraft.
As of August, Boeing had delivered 169 of its best-selling 737 Max aircraft since that aircraft returned to service in late 2020 following the nearly two-year safety ban following fatal crashes.
Crucially, Boeing has virtually eliminated a stockpile of up to 200 unwanted aircraft known in the industry as “white tails,” left by the 737 Max crisis, according to industry sources.
Boeing is recovering domestic travel to the U.S. and other markets, although international passenger travel remains depressed and coronavirus variants pose potentially new risks.
Boeing is also dealing with structural defects in its larger and more profitable 787 aircraft, which have caused it to cut production and stop deliveries.
In terms of aircraft sales, Boeing said it received orders in August for 53 aircraft, including 35 of its 737 Max aircraft and 18 of its largest wide-body aircraft.
These include 11,777 freighters – one for FedEx Corp. and 10 more for a buyer or buyers that Boeing refused to identify.
August total orders, taking into account cancellations and conversions, stood at 23, Boeing said.