Boeing’s December Commercial Airplane activity pointed to positive new-order momentum while deliveries on two key programs, the 737 MAX and 737, continue to struggle.
The company booked 79 net orders in December 2021, highlighted by a 50-unit 737 MAX purchase from Allegiant Air that was not publicly announced until earlier in January. It also recorded seven 737 MAX orders for unidentified customers, 19 767F orders for UPS and four 777Fs for Atlas Air. The net orders include one cancellation recorded during the month—a 737 MAX destined for lessor Aviation Capital Group. December was Boeing’s 11th consecutive month of positive net orders.
The December orders and cancellation pushed Boeing’s full-year 2021 total to 909 total new orders and 479 net new orders, the company said.
Boeing delivered 38 aircraft in December 2021, pushing its total for the year to 340. The total included 33 737s (32 737 MAXs and one P-8).
While the December 737 MAX deliveries fell just one short of 2021’s one-month high of 33, in June, they remain below the pace Boeing needs to keep its total inventory from growing. Monthly 737 production was 19/month as of late October 2021, and the company said then that its target of 31/month by early 2022 was still in play. Meanwhile, Boeing continues to deliver aircraft from a backlog of about 470 aircraft built up during a 737 MAX delivery pause that lasted from March 2019 to December 2020, linked to the model’s global grounding.
Last month’s 737 MAX delivery split included 18 aircraft built before December 2020, Aviation Week Fleet Discovery data show. The rest were rolled out in 2021, including aircraft completed in the first half of the year. For the full year, Boeing delivered 245 737 MAXs, but only 76 were built after November 2020, Fleet Discovery shows. Deliveries resumed in early December 2020.
Boeing’s other December deliveries included four freighters and one KC-46 tanker.
Deliveries of 787s remain paused as Boeing and the FAA sort through how to identify and correct production-quality issues. The company totaled 14 787 deliveries in 2021, with none approved by the FAA for customer handover since April.
The company ended the year with an official firm-order backlog of 4,250, not including about 880 orders in the ASC 606 accounting category, marking them as risky. The 737 MAX program increased its net firm order backlog by 356 in 2021, to 3,376, with 749 new orders and 393 cancellations.
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