It appears that the troubles continue for Boeing and it’s 737MAX as Qatar Airlines has told boeing that it’s order for 30 new aircraft will not be taken up. In 2016 the airline made a significant aircraft order for new 787s and 777s this order also included up to 60 737MAX aircraft. The reasons given by the Qatar CEO, Akbar al-Baker was that the airline no longer needed the type. Could this be due to the effect the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the airline industry? Given that Qatar is primarily a long haul airline It will be more financially damaged by this outbreak which perhaps is why they are not committing to much money towards more aircraft.
As for the Max it’s currently had over 500 cancellations in 2020 with the most notable pf them being the Avalon leasing group which cancelled an 8 Billion dollar order as well as Brazilian airline GOL cancelling an order for 34 new aircraft. Troubling times indeed…
To read more about the Qatar situation you can read this article and please i’d love to hear your thoughts on the current state of boeing as well as the 737 MAX. Thanks
for visiting :)
They were most likely for Air Italy. With A321neos in the order books and Air Italy gone, If they were to be operated by Qatar, then the cancellation was likely done to reduce costs as the logic of having 2 different aircraft types, with similar mission requirements and similar sizes would just increase training costs for the pilots, cabin crew, engineers etc dealing with the aircraft.
The Qatar situation is quite interesting the CEO is for lack of a better word very honest. Prior to the pandemic he said to Sky News that many of the orders may be deferred for 8-10 years and all of the orders would not be fulfilled in the next 2 years. He even threatened Boeing and Airbus saying that if they didn’t agree to his terms they will look elsewhere for aircraft in the future which seems quite foolish since there is pretty much a duopoly for long haul aircraft and Medium haul aircraft between Boeing and Airbus. The only other alternative I see is the Chinese and Russian collaboration with Comac however it would be very difficult to break the trend.
Adding on what @Kiz said, the demise of Air Italy (Meridiana) is most likely the real reason behind it. That bankruptcy was already in February so most likely unrelated to the current crisis.
It should also be noted that many of Qatars 777, 787,A321NEO and A350 orders will probably go unfulfilled since The CEO plans on delaying them for 8-10 years AKA they are not happening.
Edit: This was said before the outbreak which may suggest that maybe even more aircraft won’t be delivered given the circumstances I imagine the airline would have been hit quite hard by this.
Yes my mistake misheard the video but it’s still interesting to see how Qatar are adapting having rewatched the video he says doesn’t expect demand to return for quite a while I wonder what they will do next.
Why is the 737 Max becoming a true failure?? Now there’s another airline that’s returning orders for the new plane. I thought the 737 Max would become a success once again but I guess not.
Boeing cut corners it really didn’t fulfill the requirements airlines wanted in terms of extra pilot training which meant the sensible option for airlines with both 737NG and the A320 family was to go for the NEO instead of the max due to the cost of training pilots. NEO is practically identical to the former A320 and required no extra training. After they were found out it was grounded and they had a massive management reshuffle. To this day it’s still grounded and with the pandemic; airlines are looking to cut costs and buying an Aircraft that will cost them as well as the aircraft having a bad image doesn’t make it an attractive option anymore. That’s what you get for cutting corners in aviation!
I feel no sympathy towards Boeing it’s not the great manufacturer it once was but rather a company who looks to Wall Street before safety it’s inexcusable.
