Boeing has restarted widebody deliveries to China following a two-month hiatus forced by a regulatory review. The planemaker recently delivered two new 777 freighters and is expected to resume 787 Dreamliner and 737 MAX deliveries shortly.

Boeing resumes China plane deliveries

According to a Reuters report, a source told the news agency that all Boeing deliveries to China are set to resume following the brief stop. In May, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) ordered a halt to deliveries as it conducted a regulatory review into the batteries powering the aircraft's cockpit voice recorders (CVR).

Two Boeing 777F cargo planes were delivered to the customer at the tail end of last week, representing the first Boeing deliveries for almost two months. Prior to this, Boeing had last delivered a widebody (a 787-9) to China Southern Airlines on May 10th, while you'd have to go back a full year for its last 777F delivery. The two 777Fs have joined Air China Cargo, which operates a total of 11 777Fs, three 747-400Fs and one Airbus A330P2F, and has two more 777Fs on order from Boeing.

As per a ch-aviation report, Boeing has now delivered 26 aircraft to customers in China, the majority of which were the 737 MAX 8 (22), along with two 787-9s. While it has been forced to cap 737 MAX production amid enhanced regulatory oversight, Boeing is still planning on ramping up 787 Dreamliner production to five jets per month by the end of 2024, despite ongoing supply chain problems.

The planemaker had restarted widebody deliveries to China in December, followed by the resumption of MAX deliveries a month later. This ended a four-year delivery hiatus for the MAX, which faced a lengthy re-certification process in China and was jeopardized by the Alaska Airlines plug door blowout incident in early January.

Battery regulation stop

The hiatus in deliveries was forced by a CAAC review into CVR battery changes on the 737, 777 and 787. A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) mandate which came into force in May gives carriers one year to upgrade their CVRs to record up to 25 hours instead of the previously required two hours.

Boeing delivered a total of 83 aircraft in the first quarter, a considerable drop from the 130 delivered the year prior, and has stated its second-quarter total will be similar. There are over 100 disclosed orders for Boeing aircraft from Chinese customers, although the true figure is higher when including undisclosed orders. In a filing at the end of 2023, Boeing said it had a surplus of around 140 MAX aircraft in its inventory, of which 85 were due for Chinese customers.