By David Shepardson
NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (Reuters) – Boeing Co deliveries rose in November to 48 airplanes as new orders fell to 21 airplanes, consisting of 18 737 MAXs and three 767s, the U.S. planemaker said on Tuesday.
The company delivered just 35 airplanes in October. Boeing Commercial Airplanes chief Stan Deal said last month the October decline in 737 MAX deliveries was the result of its quality management system catching “a defect in the fuselage, two defects and delayed deliveries.”
Boeing has had production and quality issues that forced it to halt deliveries of 787s for 15 months that resumed in August after the Federal Aviation Administration approved Boeing’s inspection and modification plan.
November’s orders were down after Boeing booked 122 new orders in October, including 106 737 MAX airplanes and 10 787 Dreamliners. That was up from September, when it booked 96 new airplane orders with six cancellations.
The November 737 MAX deliveries included 10 to Southwest Airlines and five for United Airlines.
Boeing was holding an event at its South Carolina 787 final assembly factory on Tuesday to tout United’s new order of 100 787 Dreamliners and 100 737 MAXs. Those numbers will be reported in its next monthly update.
It is still facing potential delays for its 737 MAX 7 and MAX 10. Boeing has so far not won approval for an extension from Congress of a Dec. 27 deadline imposing a new safety standard for modern cockpit alerts after two fatal 737 MAX crashes.
Boeing’s November deliveries lagged its 51 deliveries in September, which tied its June performance, when it exceeded the 50-plane threshold for the first time since March 2019.
The November deliveries include 32 737 MAXs, up from 23 737s in October, but still down from 37 737s delivered in September.
Deal said then that Boeing would “recover on that quickly. We can surge and we will recover for our deliveries at the end of the year.”
Boeing has delivered 411 airplanes in the first 11 months of 2022, including 333 737s and 21 787s.
Boeing’s orders net of cancellations for the year rose in November to 571 from 550, and its commercial backlog rose from 4,441 to 4,415 orders.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
