AIR Airbus SE

By Doug Cameron and Gaurav Raghuvanshi

BOC Aviation Ltd. (2588.HK) said Tuesday that it received fewer than half of its planned new jets in the first half of the year, citing production problems at Airbus SE (EADSY) and the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX.

The Hong Kong-listed aircraft leasing firm took delivery of 14 aircraft through June, including two acquired by its airline customers and sold to it. However, 12 Airbus jets were delayed primarily due to industrial constraints and six Boeing planes didn't arrive, mainly because of a global grounding of the 737 MAX planes from Boeing Co. (BA), it said in a statement.

The company said it expects that some or all of the 23 remaining 737 MAX aircraft that were scheduled for delivery in 2019 will be delayed beyond this year, and it is working with Boeing on a revised schedule. The 737 MAX was the best-selling plane model globally before it was grounded in March following deadly crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed a total of 346 people.

BOC Aviation owns 314 aircraft and manages another 23 for its customers. It has another 162 planes on order. In the first six months of this year, the company signed 32 lease commitments and now has 92 airlines as its customers, according to the statement.

BOC Aviation also repossessed eight jets from collapsed carriers in the first half of this year, all of which have since been placed with other airlines, it said.

Write to Doug Cameron at doug.cameron@wsj.com and Gaurav Raghuvanshi at gaurav.raghuvanshi@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 29, 2019 22:23 ET (02:23 GMT)

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