Boeing restarts 737 MAX deliveries to China after regulatory pause

Boeing confirmed to the Global Times on Wednesday that it has restarted deliveries of the 737 MAX to Chinese airlines, marking progress for the model in China after some setbacks.

The move came after a roughly two-month pause imposed by Chinese aviation regulators to review additional information about batteries used in cockpit voice recorders in Boeing's planes, reported Bloomberg.

It is a "natural move" after Chinese authorities finished the review of the aircraft's equipment, Qi Qi, a Chinese civil aviation expert, told the Global Times. For domestic airlines, accepting the aircraft is conducive to current fleet size's renewal and it can ease the shortage of narrow-body aircraft capacity in the medium and long term.

Deliveries of Boeing passenger aircraft to China have been intermittent since China suspended most orders and deliveries in 2019 following two fatal crashes of the 737 MAX in other countries.

In January of this year, one Boeing 737 MAX flying from Seattle arrived at the Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport in South China's Guangdong Province, which was regarded as the ending of the nearly five-year freeze.

However, in May, Bloomberg reported that Boeing had stopped delivering airplanes to customers in China, due to requests by the Civil Aviation Administration of China for additional information related to batteries used in cockpit voice recorders.

Market analysts noted that the restart of 737 MAX deliveries to China will boost market confidence for Boeing, which is mired in a deep safety crisis and financial difficulties.

It is a "boost " for Boeing, for the redelivery of this model in important global markets will help boost its performance in the capital market, Qi said.

Boeing has been in the spotlight since earlier this year, when a door blew out during a flight overseas. The company has faced supply chain difficulties and slow assembly issues.

Its total first-half orders stood at 156, down 70 percent year-on-year. Boeing's shares are down 28.5 percent this year.

The latest progress in the China's market has been regarded as a glimmer of good news for the company.

Boeing on Tuesday updated its market outlook, raising estimated demand for civilian aircraft in the next 20 years from 42,595 in 2023 to nearly 44,000, and China will lead all markets, being the largest single country market.

Boeing China President Liu Qing told the media in May that Boeing had begun to resume deliveries of new aircraft to Chinese carriers, including the 737 MAX and 787 Dreamliner, and said that recent "progress is very good and very smooth."

The move came amid a visit by a delegation of the board of directors of the US-China Business Council, which included executives from the council and some US firms like Boeing. The three-day trip to Beijing ended on Tuesday.

"We appreciate the opportunity to engage with Chinese leaders to promote commercial relations and advocate our priorities for the benefit of our companies and employees," the council's board chair and FedEx Corp President Raj Subramaniam was quoted as saying in a press release. "We support the two governments' efforts to regularly discuss and seek to manage bilateral and global challenges."