American Airlines Flight 718, the first U.S. Boeing 737 MAX commercial flight since regulators grounded for 20 months in November, will depart from Miami, Florida on December 29, 2020.
Marco Bello | Reuters
Boeing said Tuesday it delivered 26 planes to customers last month, but order cancellations continued to outpace new sales as the manufacturer is still grappling with the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Chicago-based company sold four new aircraft, 747-8 freighters for cargo airline Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings in January, and registered six cancellations.
Boeing’s backlog of aircraft ordered but not yet delivered was 4,016 at the end of the month, including routine adjustments for orders the company believes are at risk, by 4,055 at the end of December. In January 2020, Boeing’s backlog was 5,393.
The 26 deliveries include 21 of the 737 Max aircraft. Boeing resumed delivery of the targeted planes to airlines in December after federal regulators lifted a 20-month freeze due to two fatal crashes that killed 346 people.
The company did not supply 787 Dreamliners, the widebody jets, which delayed transfer to Boeing customers so it could increase inspections after finding problems with certain seams on the plane. Last month, the company said it expected to resume deliveries of these planes later in the first quarter, with “very little or none” expected in February.
Boeing’s problems that started with the 737 Max have exploded with the Covid-19 pandemic, which has reduced demand for new jetliners. But the challenges are not limited to just the production problems of the 737 Max or the 787 Dreamliner.
Last week, Boeing said it has cut its backlog of its latest jet, the 777X, by more than a third after revealing it doesn’t expect the wide-body plane to enter service until the end of 2023. That’s more than two years later than it. previously predicted and driven by weaker demand and tightened regulatory oversight of aircraft after the 737 Max crashes.