Boeing sells 909 aircraft in 2021 as it picks up speed

Boeing has sold 909 aircraft in 2021 as it picks up speed with 737 MAX orders. Leading the pack is the 737 MAX which had gross sales of 749 aircraft to 18 customers over the five models including six new operators. There are now 475 aircraft flying with 35 customers and cumulatively the MAX has just passed the 300,000 revenue flight mark with dispatch over 99 percent. Now more than 185 of 195 countries have approved a return to service or opened their airspace to the 737 MAX The orders are now getting back to the pre-pandemic levels – the 909 gross orders booked in 2021 are more than double the number recorded for the previous two years (184 in 2020 and 246 in 2019). SEE: Geoffrey Thomas discusses groundbreaking MH370 tracking. READ: After Qantas Airbus order Boeing must rethink the 737 MAX. The company is also finding strength in the widebody market supported by strong demand for freighters. The 84 orders in 2021 for 777F, 767F, and 747-8F models beat the previous record of 83 freighters ordered in 2018. Boeing sold 140 wide-body jets in all in 2021. Boeing also saw record orders and commitments in 2021 for more than 100 Converted Freighters. It delivered: 263 737s, 7 747s, 32 767s, 24 777s and 14 787s. The gross orders for 909 aircraft beat Airbus which reported 771 sales for the year, however, Airbus's backlog of 7,082 is much greater than Boeing's 5,136. Also, the Seattle aircraft builder lost key battles with Qantas and KLM late last year which are yet to be taken up in the orders and will appear in the 2022 orders.