In China, Boeing’s 737 MAX production could be cleared for take-off after long delay on eastern island of Zhoushan

China’s massive aviation market could be propelling American aerospace giant Boeing to resume operations at a completion-and-delivery facility in an eastern island city after a long hiatus that followed the global production suspension of the long-embattled 737 MAX.

The expectation was given more credence as bilateral relations with the United States improved in recent months and state media China Times reported last month that the facility could resume deliveries as soon as mid-November, quoting industry sources.

“We will be ready to deliver for our customers when that time comes,” Boeing told the Post. “We continue to support our customers in China, with 99 per cent of their current 737 MAX fleet in service.”

Boeing has received no new orders for passenger aircraft from mainland airlines since the 2018 US trade war, but it had accumulated an abundance of orders before that. Hong Kong’s Greater Bay Airlines announced in March an order for 15 Boeing 737-9 aircraft and five 787 Dreamliners.

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Boeing’s long-idle facility in Zhoushan, Zhejiang province, was established in 2018 to meet the growing demand for Boeing planes in China and the Asia-Pacific region. The completion-and-delivery centre is a joint venture with the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac), and it made the narrowbody 737 MAX.

The first delivery was made to Air China in December 2018, but then operations were suspended after the aircraft type was grounded following two deadly crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that occurred less than five months apart, killing 346 people.

“For Boeing, there is still a large market space,” said Tammy Qiu, former national chair of the Aviation and Aerospace Working Group at the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China.

“The C919 is currently unable to achieve mass production, and it will take some time to reach that stage,” she added, referring to China’s home-made, single-aisle, narrowbody plane developed by Comac. The plane made its maiden commercial flight in late May, and it as widely seen as China’s answer to the Boeing and Airbus duopoly. However, any real challenge is expected to be years away, given the lengthy production cycle for planes.

The world’s second-largest economy will need 8,560 new commercial planes through 2042, and about three-quarters will be single-aisle aircraft, according to Boeing’s official forecast in September.

China’s commercial airliner fleet will more than double to nearly 9,600 jets over the next 20 years, accounting for one-fifth of the world’s plane deliveries in the next two decades, it estimated.

“As China’s economy and traffic continue to grow, Boeing’s complete line-up of commercial jets will play a key role in helping meet that growth sustainably and economically,” Darren Hulst, Boeing’s vice-president of commercial marketing, was quoted as saying in the forecast report.

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A total of 4,165 aircraft had been registered in China by the end of 2022, up 111 from a year earlier, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

Li Xiaojin, an aviation transport economics professor at Civil Aviation University of China, said Airbus and Boeing each accounted for more than 40 per cent, while home-grown aircraft accounted for merely single digits.

Home-made airliners are not likely to pose any significant threat to Boeing any time soon, due to its great disparity in production capabilities, he said.

“Regardless of the competition from Chinese domestically made jets, the massive market size means that Boeing must vie for China’s market, despite the pressure from Airbus’s rising presence in the past years,” Li added.

Meanwhile, Boeing has not been able to significantly expand its business in China since its trade war with the US began in 2018, while facing rising competition from rival Airbus, which has seen increased orders in China.

Boeing’s European rival received an order for 292 jets from the three major state-owned airlines in July 2022. Four months later, during German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s visit to Beijing, China Aviation Supplies confirmed an order for 140 Airbus planes for US$17 billion.

China remains Boeing’s largest overseas commercial market.

The company has diversified investments in China – including in the Zhoushan facility; a composite-parts factory in Tianjin; and a services centre and a training campus in Shanghai.

Boeing has said it is ready to resume aircraft delivery from Zhoushan, and that its long-term development strategy at the site was more extensive than just 737 MAX-related businesses.

“Boeing hopes to support the establishment of an aviation-industry system in Zhoushan and its surrounding areas, attracting new partners, suppliers and new capabilities, and thus supporting Boeing customers in long-term development,” it said in a press release in August 2022.