American aircraft manufacturer Boeing is set to lose the title of being the world’s biggest plane maker after reporting a 37% drop in deliveries for the first half of the year due to the prolonged grounding of its best-selling MAX jets after two deadly crashes.
Boeing’s best-selling MAX has been barred by safety regulators from flying passengers for almost four months, far longer than Boeing, its investors and airlines expected.
From January through June Boeing supplied 239 planes compared to 378 jets in the same period of 2018.Deliveries for the second quarter of 2019 were down 54 percent from the same period last year, to 90 aircraft.
The numbers indicate that the company’s full-year deliveries are likely to fall behind its European rival Airbus for the first time in eight years.
On the other side, Airbus on Tuesday reported 389 deliveries in the first six months of the year, up 28 percent from the same period in 2018. The rival plane maker has also recorded 213 orders, almost double what Boeing reported.
Only some airlines have shown confidence in Boeing’s once best-selling 737 MAX jet since the fatal crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed 346 people. The aircraft has been grounded by a number of global airlines since March.
More setback came for Boeing on Monday when Saudi Arabian budget carrier Flyadeal canceled an order of 50 Boeing 737 Max jets worth up to $5.9 billion in favor of a deal with Airbus.
With this cancellation, Flyadeal became the first airline to officially cancel its order since the MAX grounding.
