'Humbled' Boeing scores first new 737 Max orders since November

KEY POINTS

• Boeing said Polish charter carrier Enter Air ordered two additional 737 Max airplanes.
• Enter Air deferred some deliveries of 737 Max planes under an agreement with Boeing over the planes' grounding.
• Cancellation of Boeing aircraft sales have far outpaced new orders this year because of the pandemic.

A Boeing 737 MAX sits outside the hangar during a media tour of the Boeing 737 MAX at the Boeing plant in Renton, Washington.

Matt Mills | Reuters

Boeing on Wednesday said it scored the first orders for its beleaguered 737 Max planes since November, selling two of them to a Polish charter airline with options to buy two more.

Enter Air and Boeing also reached a settlement over the grounding of the 737 Max, which has been out of service worldwide since March 2019 after two crashes killed 346 people. The companies didn't disclose the terms of the deal but said it would include deferring deliveries.

"We are humbled by Enter Air's commitment to the Boeing 737 family," said Ihssane Mounir, Boeing's senior vice president of commercial sales and marketing, in a news release.

Enter Air's orders for the Max aircraft won't make much of a dent in Boeing's troubles this year. Customers' cancellations of aircraft have outpaced new sales for the past six months as airlines grapple with both the extended grounding of the Max planes and as the coronavirus pandemic devastated air travel demand.

Through July, Boeing had net negative orders of 836 planes, including aircraft the company took out of its backlog.

Boeing shares fell 0.6% Wednesday to $169.27 and are down 48% so far this year.