Deprived of giant contracts in China since 2017, the American giant hopes to relaunch in this strategic market.
Is Boeing starting to get out of the “geopolitical overhang which has been hampering its activity in China for three years? The signs are multiplying in this direction. This Friday, China Southern was the first to put the 737 Max back into service, on the Guangzhou-Zhengzhou and Guangzhou-Wuhan routes, according to data from the Flight Radar24 site. A first since March 2019. At the time, China was the first country to ban the Max from flying, after two deadly crashes in October 2018 and March 2019. Since then, the plane, grounded, had been banned from the sky.
This decision had, in turn, handicapped the other companies in the region, which could not fly their Max in Chinese airspace. This, despite the green light for its return to service granted at the end of 2020 by the American Aviation Safety Agency (FAA), then by Easa, its European counterpart, and by other agencies in the world.
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Beijing took its time, only granting the precious sesame on December 2, 2021, without specifying a date for the resumption of flights. Held hostage by trade and geopolitical tensions between China and the United States, Boeing has seen its business shrink in China, a market that accounted for some 25% of its orders and deliveries before the two crashes. The American has hardly delivered to China, with the exception of a few cargo planes.
Beginning of “standardization»
It has also been deprived of giant contracts since 2017. Unlike Airbus, which continued to deliver planes from its Tianjin site, and last summer sold 292 A320neo to four companies for 37 billion dollars (list price ).
The return to service of the Max by China Southern relaunches the career of the Max in China and gives Boeing hope of a beginning of “standardization “. At the end of 2022, the American giant unblocked its meter, by signing a contract with BOC, a Singapore rental company affiliated with Bank of China, for 40 Max. What hope that Beijing returns to a balanced purchasing policy between Airbus and Boeing, as was the case before. The Western duopoly is now forced to share this vast market with the Comac C919, the Chinese medium-haul aircraft, whose success Beijing ensures, through public contracts. The C919, which has 800 orders, is to be put into service in the spring of 2023 by China Eastern.
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