Grounding Of The 737 MAX Thought To Be A Major Factor

For the past several years, both Boeing and Airbus have announced huge orders for airliners, sometimes numbering in the hundreds of units. The buying spree by airlines has led to a backlog of more than $800 billion combined between the two planemakers.

But it looks now like that order boom is cooling, if not going bust, led in part by the lengthy grounding of the 737 MAX fleet.

CNBC reports that even Boeing now admits that the 737 MAX will not be flying again in 2019. “Boeing reaffirmed with the FAA that safety is our top shared priority, and we are committed to addressing all of the FAA’s questions as they assess Max certification and training requirements,” Boeing said in a statement after its CEO and commercial airline chief met with the agency in Washington D.C. “We will work with the FAA to support their requirements and their timeline as we work to safely return the Max to service in 2020.”

But there are other factors at play as well. Both Boeing and Airbus will begin the third decade of the 21st century looking at slowing air traffic growth and trade wars, according to the report. There is also lower demand for wide-body jets that command a higher price, which has led to the pending demise of the Airbus A380 super-jumbo jet.

The past 10 years have seen the two major planemakers amass orders for 20,000 airplanes, which is 66 percent above the previous decade.

 Now both Boeing and Airbus say their pipelines are full and they are having trouble keeping up with the pace for manufacturing and deliveries.
 
 (Image from file)

FMI: Source report