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Boeing deliveries tumble as 737 Max remains grounded

Boeing has warned that further delays to returning the 737 Max to service might jeopardise its production.

Boeing has warned that further delays to returning the 737 Max to service might jeopardise its production. Photo: Getty

With the 737 Max jet still grounded after two deadly crashes, deliveries of new Boeing jets are falling far behind last year’s pace.

Boeing said on Tuesday it delivered 30 commercial airliners during May, down 56 per cent from the 68 it made in May 2018.

Deliveries of 737s plummeted from 47 a year ago to just eight last month. All eight were an older model of 737, call the NG.

Boeing is still building Max jets in Washington state but they are being parked for now.

The Chicago-based company has 4,550 unfilled orders for the Max but stopped deliveries after regulators around the world grounded the plane following crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed 346 people.

It’s working on changes to flight-control software implicated in the crashes.

Boeing reported a cancelled order for 71 Max planes to be leased to Jet Airways until the financially struggling Indian carrier suspended all flights in April.

Boeing has not reported other large cancellations despite the Max’s grounding.

Orders for all Boeing airlines were “anaemic” in May but should be better at next week’s Paris air show, said Cowen Research aerospace analyst Cai von Rumohr.

Shares of Boeing fell US$4.47 ($6,42), or 1.3 per cent, to close at US$349.33 ($501.70) on Tuesday. They have dropped 21 per cent since early March, shortly before the second Max crash.

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