Boeing’s loss of orders outpace sales for sixth straight month

Aug. 11 (UPI) — Boeing said Tuesday it lost 43 jet orders in July as cancellations outpaced sales for the sixth month.

Customers cancelled orders to buy 43 of the Boeing’s 737 Max planes, its best-selling jet, which has been grounded worldwide for more than 16 months.

The 737 Max was grounded in March 2019 after two deadly crashes overseas killed 346 people. Since then, investigations have found flaws in the plane’s automated flight software that Boeing has been ordered to fix. The company has been working to fix these flaws and the Federal Aviation Administration has gotten closer to allowing the 737 Max to fly again, but Boeing has yet to receive final approval.

Even with the prolonged grounding, Boeing had only a modest number of order cancellations of the 737 Max until a sharp decline in demand throughout the air travel industry due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the first half of this year, the company has reported 377 canceled orders, including 60 in June.

Most of the latest canceled orders were from aircraft leasing companies.

Boeing also reclassified nine jet orders as too uncertain to be counted in its backlog of orders.

The Chicago-based plane maker still has 4,496 orders for planes in its backlog, but delivery has slowed with customers saving money amid the pandemic.

Boeing delivered four jets in July, including a 767 freighter, a 777 freighter and two 787 Dreamliners.