China Aircraft Leasing Group Holdings, a Hong Kong-listed aircraft leasing company, denied earlier media reports about its plan to suspend its order of 100 Boeing 737 Max aircraft and said on Tuesday that there were no plans to stop payments related to the purchase.
Speaking at an aviation conference in Atlanta, Bastian said Delta was "very interested" in Boeing's proposed new midsized airplane, though he said the world's largest planemaker was focusing first on dealing with the crisis surrounding the MAX. It didn't disclose the amount of compensation it would be asking for.
China has chose to accept the invitation to join the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) review panel on the automated flight control system of the Boeing 737 MAX, said the country's top aviation regulator on Tuesday. The disclosure highlights the mounting uncertainty among customers, Boeing investors, and suppliers about when the new MAX version of the 737 might return to flight following the global grounding of the plane after two fatal crashes. But the sales data for the Max gives the clearest picture yet of how much scrutiny of that model could be hurting Boeing's bottom line.
Boeing delivered 37 per cent fewer commercial aircraft in the first quarter of the year amid concerns about the safety of its bestselling 737 Max jet. Though the market is less sure of Spirit AeroSystems' future, the maker of shipsets for the MAX 8 released a statement Friday confirming it would continue deliveries at the 52 planes-per-month pace, but will store them at Spirit facilities.
Total orders fell to 95 aircraft in the first quarter from 180 a year earlier. Meanwhile, airlines that own the almost 400 grounded Max jets are canceling flights.
American Airlines also said that it was unable to forecast how much the disruption would cost the company.
American said Tuesday that it canceled 1,200 flights during the quarter that ended March 31 because regulators grounded its 24 Max planes.
American also blamed the government shutdown and 940 cancellations due to faulty work by a contractor on the interiors of several other Boeing planes.
