Order cancellations for the 737 Max are increasing, putting more pressure on Boeing. After losing 150 orders in March, the single-aisle aircraft had two reduced contracts in the past few days, both from lessors.
GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS) announced the withdrawal from acquiring 69 737 Max jets, maintaining 82 confirmed units – the company already received 29 planes before the model landed.
On Monday it was the turn of the Chinese group CDB Aviation to cancel 29 of the 99 737 Max jets it had ordered. Of the 70 remaining planes, 20 will have delivery delayed to 2024, 2025 and 2026. The company also decided to replace the Max 10 with the smaller Max 8, but without detailing the change.
“As we have done in the past months, where it has made sense, we have adjusted our orderbook to line up with the fact that we are building fewer Max airplanes than planned. Disciplined adjustments provide us with greater flexibility to manage the 4,000 outstanding 737 orders and protect the value of the Max in the marketplace, ”said Boeing in a statement.
Boeing said in the past week that it is preparing to resume production of the 737 Max in the coming days, although the plane is still banned from commercial flights worldwide. Since the grounding of the aircraft in March last year due to two fatal accidents in five months, the manufacturer has already lost more than 300 orders for its main commercial aircraft.
As of March, the planemaker had a backlog of 4,079 units of the 737 Max, after seeing Avolon cut 75 planes from its orders and Brazilian airline Gol canceling 34 units out of an order for 125 jets.
