Boeing landed gross orders for 96 aircraft in September, a significant increase over prior months owing largely to deals signed with Turkish Airlines and Norwegian.
Deliveries stood at 55 aircraft in September, roughly in line with the airframer’s performance in preceding months.
The September activity included orders for 32 737 Max jets, of which Norwegian accounted for 30, while another customer that Boeing does not name ordered two examples of the narrowbody.
Boeing’s 787 programme recorded a particularly strong month in September, with the company securing deals for 64 of the widebody jets: 50 for Turkish and 14 for Uzbekistan Airways.
Those deals were tempered last month by Polish carrier Enter Air’s cancellation of an order for one 737 Max.
Accounting adjustments also took a bite. For September, Boeing moved net orders for 47 jets out of its backlog and into its ‘ASC-606’ accounting bucket. Boeing places orders in that category if it suspects they will not result in actual sales, due to factors that can include geopolitical friction and the financial condition of buyers.
This accounting shift left Boeing with net orders in September for 48 aircraft.
The company’s September deliveries included 41 737s, among them 40 Max variants and a single 737-800-based P-8 surveillance jet delivered to Boeing’s defence division. It also delivered seven 787s, three 777s and four 767s last month.
This activity left Boeing with 5,987 aircraft in its backlog at the end of September, down from 5,994 at the end of August.
