Caught in the ongoing 737 MAX crisis and the fall in demand caused by the coronavirus outbreak, Boeing has witnessed another month where its cancellations exceeded orders. While in February 2020, the U.S. planemaker actually managed to sell some of its products, namely Dreamliners ‒ the same cannot be said about the preceding month ‒ cancellations surpassed new order intake once again.
In February 2020, Boeing landed 17 new orders for 787 Dreamliners and one for a 767 freighter. Meanwhile, cancellations totaled 46 aircraft, including one 777, four Dreamliners and 41 Boeing 737 MAX.
During the month, Boeing delivered 12 commercial passenger aircraft, all of which were Dreamliners.
In January 2020, Boeing recorded for the first time since 1962 no new plane orders. In the same month, the U.S. plane maker’s competitor, Airbus, landed 273 orders for commercial aircraft.
Boeing 737 MAX cancellations problem
While current clients keep opting out of their 737 MAX purchases, Boeing so far has no luck finding new customers for the planes’ type. The U.S. manufacturer has not recorded a single order in 2020 (so far) and only 67 through 2019 ‒ a sharp drop when compared to the peak times in 2012-2014, when 737 orders were counted in thousands. The last time 737 sales had a similar pace (67/year) was in 1994.
On another hand, despite ongoing cancellations, Boeing still has a backlog of 4,504 MAXs, as only 387 aircraft have already been delivered to customers.