Boeing records first 737 MAX order in 2020, cancellations rise

By Rachit Vats and Eric M. Johnson

(Reuters) – Boeing Co secured its first 737 MAX order in 2020, while also recording more cancellations as customers continued to ditch orders for the grounded MAX jets, monthly data showed on Tuesday.

Boeing said it lost another 17 orders for the 737 MAX jet in August, bringing the total number of canceled orders, including those where buyers converted the MAX to a different model, to 445 for this year.

Boeing delivered 13 aircraft in August, down from 18 planes a year earlier and up from four in July.

The planemaker’s first MAX order this year was from Poland’s Enter Air, for two 737-8 aircraft with an option for two more jets.

Enter Air said it had reached a deal with Boeing to address the impact from the 737 MAX groundings, and would defer the deliveries of MAX airplanes it previously ordered following weak demand for air travel.

Boeing also booked 3 MAX orders from unidentified customers.

Fresh cancellations last month include nine from Aercap Holdings , two each from Aviation Capital Group and Iceland Air, one from General Electric Capital’s Aviation Services and three from unidentified customers.

Deliveries in the first eight months of the year sank by 68.5% to just 87 planes.

The U.S. planemaker, already battling with the grounding of its once best-selling 737 MAX jets, has been further hurt by the coronavirus crisis, which has sapped demand for new Boeing jets. Boeing delivered a record 806 aircraft in 2018, before the 737 MAX crisis.

Brokerage Jefferies said last month it expects Boeing to deliver 138 aircraft in 2020, down from 380 last year.

(Reporting by Rachit Vats in Bengaluru and Eric Johnson in Chicago; editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)