China’s commitment to buy 200 Boeing jets during a recent visit by US President Donald Trump will be firmed up later this year and is only an “initial tranche” of a potentially far bigger deal, the planemaker’s CEO, Kelly Ortberg, said.
Investors had expressed disappointment over the size of the deal, which was much smaller than a roughly 500-plane package that sources told Reuters was under discussion ahead of a meeting between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping this month.
But at a US conference on Wednesday, Ortberg said his trip to China alongside Trump had been “super successful” and reopened the market to Boeing’s narrowbody planes for the first time in nearly a decade after an effective order freeze due to trade tensions between Washington and Beijing.
“It’s a good start. And I’m very confident that keeping that market open, that’s an initial tranche of aircraft, and there will be more to come,” Ortberg said.
The 200-jet commitment is an entirely new deal and does not include previously unannounced orders, according to a source familiar with the matter, who added delivery schedules had yet to be confirmed.
The jets are expected to be distributed primarily among China’s big three state-owned carriers, Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines , the source added on condition of anonymity because the information has yet to be made public.
Boeing declined to comment beyond Ortberg’s remarks. China’s commerce ministry and the state-owned airlines did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
Ortberg said once the Chinese government commits to a batch of narrowbody aircraft, it allocates them to individual airlines, after which Boeing negotiates firm orders on an airline-by-airline basis.
