First Airline Officially Cancels Boeing 737 MAX Order

As the saga surrounding the safety issues of the Boeing 737 MAX continue, the latest setback for the company is the first order cancellation by an airline for the grounded plane. According to a report from Bloomberg, Flyadeal has canceled its order for 50 of the Boeing planes.

Flyadeal's parent company, Saudi Arabian Airlines, inked a deal with Boeing's competitor Airbus at the Paris Air Show last month for 50 planes from the Airbus A320neo family. That order will be used to replace the Boeing order the airline has now canceled. Flyadeal will begin taking delivery of the 30 A320neo in 2021, with an option for a further 20 aircraft from the A320neo line in the future.

While the cancellation of an order that represents less than 1% of the total order backlog for the MAX isn't a big deal at the moment for Boeing's bottom line, it could be the first sign that airlines aren't willing to wait around to see how long it takes for Boeing to get the issues with MAX corrected and get the plane back in the air.

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This post has been updated to correct the spelling of Flyadeal.

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