Saudi Arabian Airlines SAUDIA told Boeing “NO DEAL” and canceled their pending order of 20 Boeing 737 Max.
The Boeing 737 Max hasn’t been taking off, either literally nor figuratively. B737 Max had been grounded worldwide since this spring after two fatal crashes that killed hundreds.
The deal would have earned Boeing billions of dollars. The list price for the 20 Max 737s, each of which costs about $117 million, would normally run $5.9 billion, though Flyadeal would have gotten an undisclosed discount.
Boeing’s loss is Airbus’s gain. The budget Saudi airline is going instead with the Airbus 320. Flyadeal announced in a statement today that it will run an all-Airbus 320 fleet in the future and expects to add 30 such jets to its current collection by 2021, Reuters states.
Meanwhile, Boeing is trying to pick up the pieces after a disastrous year. Last week, the company announced that it would pay out $100 million to a fund for families of victims of the crashes, separate from any lawsuits over the matter. The fund would support ”education, hardship and living expenses for impacted families, community programs, and economic development in impacted communities,” according to a statement by Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenberg. He apologized to the victims’ families, saying, “We at Boeing are sorry for the tragic loss of lives in both of these accidents and these lives lost will continue to weigh heavily on our hearts and on our minds for years to come.”
In June, ahead of the Paris Air Show, Muilenberg admitted for the first time that his company mishandled concerns over its 737 Max aircraft and that mistakes were made in how it communicated about the planes, especially after the accidents. He said that Boeing is focused on rebuilding trust after the crashes, which he called a “defining moment” that will result in a “better and stronger” organization. He noted, too, that he didn’t expect to see many orders for 737s at the air show but expected global aviation regulators to allow the plane, grounded since March, to fly again before the end of the year.
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