China has begun converting its commitment to purchase 200 Boeing aircraft into individual orders, four months after the agreement was announced during a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Sunday that progress has been made on around 150 aircraft. Speaking to Fox News ahead of a new meeting between Trump and Xi this week, Greer included the Boeing jets among Chinese purchase commitments already moving forward.
According to Reuters, around 140 aircraft are in what Greer described as a “good state,” with documentation underway for another ten. The customers and aircraft models involved have not been disclosed.
The 200-aircraft commitment was announced in May after Trump met Xi in Beijing. The US Trade Representative subsequently described it as the first major Chinese purchase of Boeing aircraft in almost a decade.
Individual airlines will place orders
The agreement did not immediately produce a single firm order for 200 aircraft. Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg has said the jets will be ordered by individual Chinese airlines, with announcements expected as the transactions are completed.
Boeing has also not disclosed how the 200 aircraft will be divided among its models. Before the May summit, discussions between the two countries had included the 737 MAX family and widebody aircraft, but those negotiations do not establish the composition of the subsequent commitment.
Ortberg said in May that reopening China to new Boeing orders was a key objective for the manufacturer. The company has continued delivering aircraft to Chinese customers in recent years, but large new orders had largely disappeared during a period marked by trade tensions between Washington and Beijing and the grounding of the 737 MAX.
Follow Air Data News: WhatsApp | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook
China last announced a similarly large Boeing package in November 2017, when Boeing and China Aviation Supplies Holding Company signed an agreement covering 300 aircraft. That package included 260 737s and 40 widebody jets and was valued at more than US$37 billion at list prices.
Trump and Xi are scheduled to meet again in Washington on September 24. Ortberg said last week that he did not expect Boeing to announce another large Chinese aircraft agreement during the meeting and that future orders would be disclosed by the airlines involved.
:::
