Aircraft

By Darren Shannon in Washington, DC

Chinese carrier Xiamen Airlines has become the first operator to cancel a firm 787 order, Flight has discovered.

The cancellation was booked as an unspecified drop of three 787s on Boeing’s latest online net order report, which was released yesterday. At the same time, the order book to 13 June also shows a decrease in the 10 Boeing 737 cancellations recorded by the manufacturer two weeks ago to four 737s.

No other details are being disclosed by Boeing, and the company will not comment beyond yesterday’s online report.

However, a source close to the US manufacturer tells Flight the 787 cancellation is the result of a strategic revision by one operator, which includes a shift from the three 787s on order to six 737-800s. This single move fully accounts for the changes in Boeing’s wide- and narrowbody cancellation figures.

Only Xiamen has a standing firm order for three 787s, all -8 variants, according to Boeing’s online May order book.

The airline was not immediately available for comment.

This article first appeared on Air Transport Intelligence, an online business intelligence service for the air transport industry with 24 hour news and data available to subscribers.