Boeing 737 MAX still key to restoring confidence in China as US aerospace giant faces ‘challenging times’
- China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735, which crashed the Guangxi autonomous region on Monday, was a Boeing 737-800
- Boeing is still trying to regain confidence within the Chinese market after the 737 MAX was grounded in 2019 after two fatal crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia
Boeing has long found itself entangled in the long running trade tensions between Beijing and Washington, but restoring confidence in its key Chinese market is still dependent on the return of the grounded 737 MAX, analysts said.
China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735, which crashed in the Guangxi autonomous region on Monday, was a Boeing 737-800, which is an older version of the 737 MAX that has been grounded in China since 2019 after 346 people died in two fatal crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia.
The cause of this week’s crash, which is China’s most fatal commercial passenger airline crash in more than a decade, is yet to be determined.
Both planes belong to the 737 series, and are commonly used on shorter routes, although the 737 MAX can fly farther and carry more passengers than the previous generation of 737s.
Now that the rest of the world has pretty much restarted the MAX, the biggest remaining customer in the region is China. They are definitely watching this very carefully, given the current situation
“The crash involving the 737-800 is under investigation and we will soon find out the cause of the tragedy. As for the MAX, all issues relating to its grounding have, in my view, been resolved and it will be entirely at the discretion of the CAAC to decide when Chinese airlines can officially fly it again,” said Shukor Yusof, founder of aviation consultancy Endau Analytics.
