Boeing Pain From US-China Trade War Seen in Airbus Bonanza
- China is ‘sending a sign’ with deal for planes, analyst says
- Boeing: ‘Geopolitical differences’ are constraining exports
President Xi Jinping visits the Boeing commercial airplane factory in Everett, Washington, in 2015.Photographer: Li Tao/Xinhua News
After
’s European archrival revealed
to provide aircraft to Chinese carriers, the US-based planemaker bemoaned its home country’s trade war with China for bruising its business prospects.
“As a top US exporter with a 50-year relationship with China’s aviation industry, it is disappointing that geopolitical differences continue to constrain US aircraft exports,” a Boeing spokesperson said Friday in a statement.
The agreement for
to provide 292 planes to Chinese airlines in a deal worth $37 billion is a stark reminder of Boeing’s uncertain standing in one of the world’s largest travel markets. Both Airbus and Boeing have held long-running talks for large narrow-body aircraft orders that would help China replenish and grow its domestic fleet this decade, said a person familiar with the matter.
But, for now, Boeing can only watch as Airbus celebrates an order bonanza that doubles a 290-aircraft deal the European manufacturer struck in March 2019.
“This is China sending a sign, and it hurts Boeing terribly,” said George Ferguson, analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence.
It’s unclear whether China’s airlines can look solely to Airbus to fill their medium-term flying needs, as a waning pandemic is likely to spur demand, and the European planemaker is already running low on delivery slots to offer prospective customers.
