China Development Bank (CDB) Financial Leasing has delivered the latest blow to the Boeing 737 Max order book by canceling delivery of 29 of the 101 jets that remain in its backlog, the company confirmed on Monday. CDB’s move comes three days after another major leasing group Gecas reached a so-called restructuring deal with Boeing including the cancellation of orders for 69 Max airliners. In the month of March alone, Boeing lost orders for 150 of the troubled narrowbodies, including a 75-unit commitment from Dublin-based leasing company Avolon.

In each case, Boeing raised the fact that the developments would serve to relieve some backlog pressure during the model's grounding.

“As we have done in the past months, where it has made sense, we have adjusted our order book to line up with the fact that we are building fewer Max airplanes than planned,” said Boeing in a statement. “Disciplined adjustments provide us with greater flexibility to manage the 4,000 outstanding 737 orders and protect the value of the Max in the marketplace. In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, this adjustment also helps to balance supply and demand with market realities, especially in the leasing channel.”

For its part, CDB thanked Boeing for its collaboration in the order restructuring, which includes a switch from its remaining Max 10s on order to Max 8s and a delivery deferral extended to between 2024 and 2026.

“In light of evolving aviation market dynamics, we’ve been working together with Boeing over many months to re-calibrate our Max order book to be in line with our long-term view of the market and related opportunities,” confirmed CDB Aviation chairman Xuedong Wang.