Boeing Ends Order Drought Triggered by 737 MAX Crisis -- Update

By Robert Wall and Andrew Tangel 

LE BOURGET, France -- Boeing Co. ended a two-month drought of orders for its airliners in the wake of the grounding of its 737 MAX fleet, by securing a commitment from Korean Air Lines Co. Ltd. and Air Lease Corp. to buy 787 Dreamliners.

Boeing entered the Paris Air Show in an unusual situation. The U.S. plane maker had racked up 125 more cancellations than new orders for this year, reflecting few bookings and a raft of canceled orders, including from India's financially struggling Jet Airways.

Boeing failed to win any new orders in April or May. Air New Zealand Ltd. said last month it would buy eight 787-10 Dreamliners, but the deal wasn't finalized.

The biennial Paris Air Show is typically a place for plane producers to showcase new products and rack up large airliner orders. However, this year, Boeing has had to balance that with handling the fallout of the two 737 MAX crashes in October and March, that killed a total of 346 people, triggering a world-wide grounding of the fleet as it works on a fix.

Boeing said Tuesday that Korean Air would introduce 20 of the largest version of the Dreamliner, the 787-10, and 10 slightly smaller 787-9s. The deal has a value of $6.3 billion before industry-standard discounts. Some of the planes are being acquired by plane rental firm Air Lease Corp. and placed with the Asian carrier.

Air Lease Corp. separately ordered five 787-9s at a pre-discount price of $1.5 billion.

Rival Airbus SE continued its order haul, including for its newly launched A321XLR, introduced at the air show on Monday.

Philippine budget carrier Cebu Pacific ordered 10 of the new planes, with first delivery in 2024, along with 16 of the wide-body A330-900s and five A320neo single-aisle jets.

Saudi Arabian Airlines added to an earlier A320neo deal, taking as many as 100 of the planes, including 15 of the A321XLR.

Write to Robert Wall at [e-mail] and Andrew Tangel at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 18, 2019 08:27 ET (12:27 GMT)

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