Air freight market becomes a bright spot for Boeing in China

Boeing, struggling in China with sales of passenger planes due to trade tensions and the grounding of its 737 MAX, is upbeat about the outlook for freighter plane sales there as e-commerce demand booms. A three-year deadlock on Boeing plane orders was broken last May when China Cargo Airlines, owned by China Eastern, placed an order for two 777 widebody freighters. Boeing’s website shows 24 of the type have been delivered to China. “We’ve seen this really explosive demand for dedicated freighter airplanes in the last year,” said Richard Wynne, managing director of China marketing at Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Though political friction between China and the United States has meant no Chinese orders for new Boeing passenger planes since 2017, Boeing’s dominance of the freighter market makes it harder to bypass. Around 90% of the world’s freighters are Boeing planes. Sources have said, however, that rival Airbus SE is canvassing interest in a freighter version of its A350 passenger jet.<br/>