New York
CNN
—
United Airlines placed a massive order for at least 200 Boeing planes on Tuesday, split between two models dogged by recent problems: the 737 Max and the 787 Dreamliner.
It’s a crucial vote of confidence for Boeing, which took tens of billions of dollars in financial losses due to the problems with the two planes. The Federal Aviation Administration grounded the 737 Max for 20 months starting in March 2019, halting deliveries of the jets, after two fatal crashes that killed 346 people. The 787 was not grounded but the FAA halted deliveries for roughly a year due to quality control issues.
Even beyond those problems, Boeing has been losing the competition with European rival Airbus on new orders, especially for single-aisle jets like the 737 Max. It has done better in competition for widebody plane orders, but has faced problems there as well, with delays for a new model of the 777, the 777X, and the halt in 787 deliveries.
Later Tuesday Boeing reported that it had received orders for a total of 571 commercial planes through November of this year, net cancellations. So United’s order for 200 jets by itself represented 35% of the orders the aircraft maker had already reported for the year. But even adding those 200 jets doesn’t bring Boeing’s total near to the 825 plane orders that Airbus has booked, net its own cancellations.
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