NEW YORK– A Chinese aircraft leasing firm announced an order for 50 737 MAX 8 aircraft, Boeing’s flagship product, at a time when the manufacturer is going through a deep crisis.
China Development Bank Financial Leasing explained in a statement filed with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that it plans to renew its fleet with more fuel-efficient aircraft.
At list price, this order exceeds 6 billion dollars.
The planes will be delivered between 2028 and 2031, according to the stock exchange document.
The order comes a day after the manufacturer announced that it would send tens of thousands of non-union employees to partial technical strike in the coming days in the United States, in the midst of a strike at its main plants.
This is one of the measures adopted by Boeing to reduce costs and preserve money during the strike of 33,000 workers in the northwest of the United States.
The protest, which began with the expiration of the previous collective agreement last Thursday at midnight, paralyzes two important Boeing assembly plants in Renton and Everett, which produce the 737 MAX – the best-selling aircraft -, the 777 transport cargo and the 767 military tanker plane, whose deliveries are already suffering delays.
Boeing also faces heavy scrutiny from aviation regulators in the United States for safety incidents this year, following the crashes of two 737 MAX 8s in 2018 and 2019, which left 346 dead.
The loss of a blank door from the fuselage of an Alaskan Airlines 737 MAX 9 in early January led regulators to limit its production of 737 to 38 units per month.
