China: A brand-new Boeing Dreamliner 787 has landed in China for the first time in four years. Flight trackers indicate that the plane touched down in Shanghai at 4:25 pm local time (08:25 GMT) on Friday, the first direct Dreamliner delivery to China since 2019.
The arrival may signal an unfreezing of Chinese orders for the United States company. At 11:24 am Pacific Time (19:24 GMT) on Thursday, the Boeing 787-9 took off from Everett Paine Field in Washington state, bound for Juneyao Airlines, a privately held Chinese airline.
With the grounded 737 MAX, which was a profitable aircraft, China and other nations stopped ordering and receiving Boeing aircraft in 2019. Following two deadly crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia that claimed hundreds of lives, there was a global grounding.
China was a significant market for the American aircraft manufacturer, contributing roughly one-fifth of the Boeing 737 MAX models delivered globally. The company has delivered 76 of the aircraft to Chinese airlines, with another 104 orders on the books, as per the statement.
Boeing’s relationship with China would be reset if MAX deliveries resumed. It would also give the company a chance to sell off dozens of aircraft that are sitting in its inventory and possibly open the door to bigger order breakthroughs.
The last time Boeing gave a Chinese customer a leased Dreamliner was in 2021, but since November 2019, no 787s have been given out directly.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) in China must still approve individual MAX deliveries, according to trade journal The Air Current.
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