Boeing delivered just six airplanes during the month of April, as monthly figures reported by the company on Tuesday for the first time reflected the full effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
A total of 108 order cancellations during the month included those already announced from GE Capital Aviation Services covering sixty-nine 737 Max jets and 29 from CDB Financial Leasing, along with another 10 from unidentified customers.
After the company removed orders for another 101 airplanes from its books to comply with new accounting standards, its net order total for 2020 now stands at negative 516. Of those, the 737 Max accounted for negative 299, while the 737 NG saw a net positive total of 16 airplanes. Boeing’s new 777X has recorded no order activity this year, while the 777-300ER’s total stands at negative 1. Along with 737 NGs built for the P-8 military program and a pair of 767 freighters for FedEx, Boeing has seen positive net order activity for the year for only the 787 Dreamliner, at 25 units.
The dismal month of April followed a first quarter in which Boeing delivered a total of 50 airplanes, compared with 149 during 1Q2019. During the month of March alone, Boeing registered cancellations of 150 Max jets, a development the company said would relieve some pressure on its backlog while the model remained grounded.
By the end of last month, Boeing finally detailed planned production rate cuts starting with the 787, which will see a reduction from the current 14 a month to seven per month in 2022, while 777/777X rates will fall from five this year to three next year.
Plans call for 737 Max production, which CEO David Calhoun has estimated will resume in the third quarter, to accelerate even slower than originally planned following the narrowbody’s year-and-half-long grounding. In a drastic departure from plans to raise the 737’s peak rate of 57 a month to as many as 63, Boeing now sees 737 Max rates gradually increasing to just 31 per month next year and modestly rising with any increased market demand thereafter.
Rival Airbus has revealed plans to cut rates across its product line by about one-third, resulting in a reduction of A320 family production to 40 per month from a peak of 60 in 2019. Widebody production, meanwhile, will see A330 rates drop from some 3.25 per month to two per month, while A350 rates fall from roughly 10 per month to six. In February Airbus had already announced an A330 cut from 53 in 2019 to 40 in 2020.