(Reuters) – Boeing delivered 60 passenger planes in June, taking its total first-half deliveries to 266 aircraft, a 23% improvement on the first six months of last year, despite several production flaws that hampered deliveries during the semester.
The American manufacturer seems on track to meet its annual delivery targets of at least 400 narrow-body 737 models and 70 Boeing 787 Dreamliners in 2023. It has already delivered 216 Boeing 737s and 31 Dreamliners since January.
However, Boeing lags behind European rival Airbus, which delivered 316 planes in the first six months of the year, including 72 jets in June. Airbus hopes to deliver a total of 720 planes in 2023.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Stan Deal said in June that the company planned to increase production of its MAX model from its current rate of 31 jets per month to 38 “very soon”, but would likely encounter a supply chain instability with each rate increase.
Boeing won net orders for 288 planes last month, led by a monster order from Air India for 190 MAXs, 20 Dreamliners and 10 777X mini-jumbos. The aircraft manufacturer also booked a previously announced order for 39 Dreamliners from Saudi Arabia’s new airline Riyadh Air.
The company booked orders for 415 aircraft in the first half of 2023 taking cancellations into account. This is a far cry from the 1,044 net orders for Airbus, which boosted its backlog by ordering 500 planes from the Indian low-cost airline IndiGo.
(Report Valérie Insinna; Gaëlle Sheehan, edited by Kate Entringer)
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