Boeing customers cancel orders for 150 jets in March
According to tracking service Circium, there are now nearly 14,000 jets parked by airlines around the world, representing 63 of the global fleet.
Boeing did report 31 orders for jets in March, but 18 of those are for military aircraft and one is a freighter for FedEx. The remaining 12 were an order from Japanese carrier ANA for the 787 Dreamliner.
Another 34 orders were canceled in March by Brazilian airline GOL, which previously had unfilled orders for 129 of the jets. Lufthansa subsidiary SmartWings canceled five orders as the German airline recently announced plans to scale back its operations even after the crisis has passed. Boeing did not identify which airlines or leasing companies had canceled the other 36 jet orders.
“We are working closely with our customers, many of whom are facing significant financial pressures, to review their fleet plans and make adjustments where appropriate,” Boeing said in a statement.
With the unprecedented drop in air travel and a record number of jets parked around the globe, the huge number of canceled orders was not a surprise said Richard Aboulafia, aerospace analyst for the Teal Group. He said this current crisis is far more serious for Boeing than were its earlier troubles getting approval for the 737 Max to fly again.
“Even these unpleasant numbers are kind of meaningless because the reality is much worse,” he said. Boeing still has a backlog of orders for thousands of jets it has yet to build, he added, and he expects it won’t lose most of those. But he said there is a larger risk that airlines will defer delivery of many of those jets until the market for travel improves, which will likely take years.
Boeing also changed how it accounts for the backlog in orders with its March report, suggesting that about 160 additional jets have already had their delivery schedule deferred further. The total number of commercial planes now in its backlog stands has therefore dropped by about 300 planes in the month, although it still stands at about 5,000.