Boeing delivers 26 planes in January as cancellations continue to exceed new sales

Boeing said on Tuesday it delivered 26 planes to its customers last month, but order cancellations continued to outpace new sales, with the manufacturer still struggling in the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Chicago-based company sold four new planes in January, 747-8 freighters for freight airline Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings and recorded six cancellations.

Boeing’s backlog of aircraft ordered but not yet delivered was 4,016 at the end of the month, including routine adjustments for orders the company considers at risk, up from 4,055 at the end of December. . In January 2020, Boeing’s backlog stood at 5,393.

The 26 deliveries included 21 of its 737 Max aircraft. Boeing resumed deliveries of the beleaguered jets to airlines in December after federal regulators lifted a 20-month stranding resulting from two fatal crashes that killed 346 people.

The company has not delivered any 787 Dreamliners, the wide-bodied jets, whose delivery to Boeing customers has been delayed in order to be able to increase inspections after finding problems with certain seams on the plane. Last month, the company said it plans to resume deliveries of those planes later in the first quarter, expecting “very little, if any” deliveries in February.

Boeing’s problems that started with the 737 Max have exploded with the Covid-19 pandemic, which has sapped demand for new airliners. But the challenges aren’t limited to the production issues of the 737 Max or the 787 Dreamliner.

Last week, Boeing said it reduced its backlog of its latest jet, the 777X, by more than a third after revealing it did not expect the wide-body plane to enter service before the end of 2023. This is more than two years later than previously expected and driven by lower demand and increased regulatory review of aircraft after the 737 Max crashes.