(Reuters) – Boeing said on Tuesday it delivered 27 planes in February, one less than a year ago, as the U.S. manufacturer faces production problems.

Boeing has been under pressure since an accident on January 5 in which a part of the fuselage of a 737 MAX 9 broke off in mid-flight. In response, the American civil aviation authority, the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), grounded 171 Boeing MAX 9s and temporarily limited the production of this type of aircraft by the American manufacturer.

So far this year, Boeing has delivered 54 planes, including 42 MAXs, down from 66 planes delivered in the first two months of last year, the company said.

“All we need to do now is stabilize and grow the supply chain and our own factory, and we’re confident we’ll do that,” Brian West, Boeing’s chief financial officer, said at the TD Cowen Aerospace conference. & Defense last month.

The US planemaker also said on Tuesday that it had booked 15 new orders in February, bringing the gross total to 18 orders since the start of the year.

Excluding cancellations and conversions, Boeing has a net year-to-date order total of 15.

After further accounting adjustments to reflect the quality of the backlog, Boeing reported adjusted net orders of 19 planes so far this year.

Last week, European rival Airbus said it had booked 33 gross orders for the January-February period, without any cancellations, and has delivered 79 planes since the start of 2024.

(Reporting by Allison Lampert in Seattle and David Shepardson in Washington; Lina Golovnya, editing by Kate Entringer)

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