Following April Quality Glitch, Boeing MAX Deliveries Bounce Back in May
Jun. 13—After discovery of a manufacturing quality defect cut deliveries of the 737 MAX in April to a low level, Boeing recovered well in May, delivering twice as many of the jets, according to company data released Tuesday.
The data shows Boeing delivered a total of 50 commercial airplanes in May, including 35 narrowbody MAXs and eight widebody 787 Dreamliners.
That's up from 26 deliveries in April, including just 17 MAXs and six Dreamliners.
Top customer Southwest took 11 MAXs in May. Ryanair and United took six each.
Through May, Boeing has delivered 163 jets this year.
European rival Airbus delivered 63 jets in May, for a total of 244 so far this year, or 50% more than Boeing.
On the sales side, Boeing posted 58 net new orders in May.
That included 55 net new MAX orders and 10 new 787 orders. At the same time, Boeing canceled an order for six 777F freighters for lessor Hong Kong International and a 777-300ER passenger jet order for an unidentified customer.
That cancellation of the 777-300ER leaves only five more orders on the books for that model, the most successful large widebody jet in Boeing's history.
In addition, Boeing in May clarified the status of 59 orders previously considered doubtful and removed from the official backlog, with most of those restored to the backlog.
In contrast, Airbus ended May with no change to its order book after it canceled 17 orders, including 16 for bankrupt Indian carrier Go First, then reassigned those 17 orders to other customers.
Airbus is expected to announce substantial new orders at the Paris Air Show that starts next week, and a lull in its sales announcements the month before is typical.
Going into the Paris Air Show, Airbus has 144 net orders for the year while Boeing has 127.
After the various additions and subtractions due to deliveries, new orders and adjustments to the backlog, Boeing ended May with 4,634 jets in its firm order book, up 67 from a month earlier.
That includes 3,634 orders for MAXs.
Airbus ended May with a total backlog of more than 7,000 jets, including over 5,900 of its A320neo family of jets.
However, unlike Boeing, Airbus doesn't remove doubtful orders from those top-line order tallies. For example, it still lists 72 orders for the A320neo from Go First, despite the bankruptcy.
The at least partial recovery of the MAX deliveries comes after a downturn in April following discovery of a quality problem by Wichita, Kan.-based supplier Spirit AeroSystems.
Spirit told Boeing that a nonstandard manufacturing process had been used by a subcontractor to fabricate two of the eight heavy metal fittings that attach the MAX's vertical tailfin to the fuselage.
That required all planes under assembly with this defect to be fixed, including those that had a tailfin installed already. Boeing said at the time the issue would delay deliveries of about 45 to 50 MAXs previously expected to be in service for the peak summer travel season.
Following that glitch, Chief Financial Officer Brian West, speaking at an investor conference at the end of May, said Boeing expects an average of about 30 MAX deliveries per month through June, rising to an average of 40 per month in the second half of the year.
However, a new quality glitch discovered this month, this time affecting the horizontal tail of the 787, means June deliveries of that widebody jet are likely to be lower after May's good result.
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