Boeing plane cancellations continue to far exceed new orders

US aircraft manufacturer Boeing has reported nine orders of its new freighter planes in May and twice as many cancellations, which included a switch of a delivery slot for a 747 freighter for parcel firm UPS.

According to Boeing, the scrapped orders included 14 of its still-grounded 737 Max jets. Boeing’s net order tally for the year now stands at negative 602, consisting of 58 new orders, 322 jets formally cancelled, and 338 orders classed as “not firm enough” to be counted as official backlog.

The plane maker’s total order backlog was reduced to 4,744 planes, the lowest figure since 2013.

The plunging demand for air travel due to the coronavirus pandemic has led to mass cancellations of orders by the company’s customers. To make matters worse, what was Boeing’s best-selling passenger aircraft, the 737 MAX, has been grounded for over a year after two deadly crashes less than six months apart.

Boeing has been struggling to fix the safety system blamed for the crashes, but continued to produce the 737 MAX in the hope that the grounding would soon end. The manufacturer eventually had to halt production in January 2020, as undelivered aircraft piled up across Boeing’s facilities.

Boeing earlier announced plans to trim its workforce by 16,000 through voluntary buyouts and layoffs, due the crisis gripping the airline industry. Nearly 10,000 employees will leave the company over the coming two months.

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