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Qatar Airways in deal for most widebody jets in Boeing ( BA )

history

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Boeing ( BA ) delivers 45 aircraft in May, nearly double from

last year

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Paris Air Show due to start next Monday

(Adds details about Qatar order, paragraph 4)

By Dan Catchpole

SEATTLE, June 10 (Reuters) -

Boeing ( BA ) heads into the Paris Air Show after a

blockbuster May that included booking 303 new orders and rolling

out 38 new 737 MAX jets, a production rate it has been working

to reach for more than a year. The company also delivered 45

aircraft last month, it said Tuesday.

It was the sixth-highest monthly order tally in Boeing's ( BA )

history, according to company data.

The orders included the largest widebody jet deal in

Boeing's ( BA ) history: Qatar Airways' order for 130 787s and 30

777Xs, plus options for another 50 of the long-haul aircraft.

Only 120 of the 787s were booked in May. The other 10 had

been ordered by Qatar in March, but the customer was

unidentified in Boeing's ( BA ) order backlog before Tuesday.

The Qatar order was announced among a string of high-profile

U.S. business deals during President Donald Trump's Middle East

tour. A day earlier, Saudi Arabian-owned AviLease ordered 20

737-8 MAX jets.

Another Gulf region carrier, Etihad, said it planned to

order 28 widebody Boeing ( BA ) jets. It did not place a firm order, so

the aircraft were not included in May's total.

Canadian airline WestJet also ordered seven 737 MAX jets,

and also canceled two orders for 737s.

In total, three orders were canceled during the month,

making for 300 net new orders in May. Its order backlog rose to

5,943 orders as of May 31.

Boeing ( BA ) delivered 45 aircraft in the month, its fifth

consecutive month of 40 or more deliveries. The total was nearly

twice as many deliveries as the 24 aircraft the company handed

over to customers during the same month one year earlier.

Wall Street closely monitors aircraft deliveries because

planemakers can collect the majority of their payment when they

hand over jets to customers.

The company handed over 31 737 MAX jets, including seven to

United Airlines and four to Alaska Airlines, and seven 787s,

including three to Qatar Airways from earlier orders.

It also delivered five 777 freighters, one 767 freighter and

one 737 NG to be converted into a P-8 Poseidon for the U.S.

Navy.

None of the deliveries were to Chinese airlines, which

stopped taking new Boeing ( BA ) aircraft in April as the two countries

clashed over tariffs. China removed the ban after the Washington

and Beijing agreed to temporarily cut tariffs. A new 737 MAX

landed in China on Monday, according to flight tracking data,

the first to arrive since the ban was removed.

So far in 2025, Boeing ( BA ) has delivered 220 aircraft: 164 737

MAXes, three 737 NGs for conversion into P-8s, 28 787s, 16 777s

and nine 767s.

European rival Airbus has delivered 243 aircraft so

far this year, including 51 deliveries in May. Airbus did not

announce any new orders last month, but it is expected to

announce several deals during the Paris Air Show, which starts

Monday.

Boeing ( BA ) said it rolled out 38 new 737 MAX aircraft in May,

hitting a production target it has been working on for more than

a year. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration capped output

at 38 airplanes a month due to quality concerns exposed by a

mid-air panel blowout in a nearly new 737 in January 2024.

Monthly production of its best-selling 737 MAX has varied up

and down in recent years as the company grappled with internal

and external production problems and constraints. A strike last

year at its plants in Washington and Oregon shut down production

of the popular single-aisle airplane. Since production resumed

in December, the company has taken a slow and deliberate

approach to increasing the rate.

Boeing ( BA ) CEO Kelly Ortberg has said the company has to

stabilize production at 38 per month for several months before

asking the FAA to increase output.

All six production quality and safety metrics created by the

company and U.S. regulators are green, according to the company.