(Reuters) – China Development Bank Financial Leasing said its aircraft leasing unit will order 50 Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets, in a boost for the planemaker which has been grappling with a slowdown in Chinese orders and a strike by factory workers.
Publicly disclosed purchases of Boeing jets by Chinese customers had slowed significantly since China-U.S. trade relations soured in 2018 and the manufacturer faced a lengthy return to service for the MAX in China after two deadly crashes.
The order for 50 MAX jets is the largest by a Chinese customer since China Southern Airlines ordered the same number of MAX jets in 2015, according to data on Boeing’s website. Boeing declined to comment.
The aircraft manufacturer’s deliveries to China had been gradually recovering in recent months after a long pause.
CDB Aviation Lease will take delivery of the aircraft between 2028 and 2031, its parent company said in a statement, adding that it would increase the proportion of next-generation aircraft in its fleet.
The deal comes less than a week after more than 30,000 Boeing factory workers went on strike for better pay, resulting in the halting of production of the planemaker’s best-selling jet, the MAX, among other planes.
Boeing said Wednesday that tens of thousands of workers will be temporarily furloughed due to the strike.
The MAX order is the second major aircraft deal announced by China Development Bank Financial Leasing in the past week. The company said last week it would buy 80 Airbus A320neo aircraft, with deliveries expected to begin in 2030.
(Reporting by Adwitiya Srivastava in Bengaluru, Sophie Yu in Beijing and Allison Lampert in Montreal; editing by Alan Barona and Jamie Freed)
