After the Xiamen Airlines episode, a second Boeing plane scheduled to be delivered to a Chinese carrier was returning back to the US today, which could be another victim of the reciprocal bilateral tariffs launched by President Donald Trump in his global trade offensive.
The Boeing B737 MAX 8 aircraft landed in the US territory of Guam today, after leaving Boeing’s Zhoushan completion centre near Shanghai.
Guam is one of the stops such flights make on the 5,000-mile (8,000-km) journey across the Pacific between Boeing’s US production hub in Seattle and the Zhoushan completion center, where planes are ferried by Boeing for final work and delivery to a Chinese carrier.
Yesterday, a Boeing 737 MAX painted with the livery for China’s Xiamen Airlines made the return journey from Zhoushan and landed at Seattle’s Boeing Field.
On April 19, 2025, a Boeing 737 MAX aircraft originally scheduled to be operated by China's Xiamen Airlines returned to Seattle from China. (Dan Catchpole/Reuters)
As part of the tariff countermeasures to the United States, China has asked domestic airlines to stop receiving Boeing aircraft from the United States and suspend the purchase of related equipment and parts. According to Bloomberg, this is another major setback for Boeing in one of the world's largest markets.
As per a report from Reuters, a spokesperson for Xiamen Airlines also confirmed that two planes marked for the carrier had gone to the US, but declined to provide a reason.
However, It's yet to be revealed on the initiator or which party made the decision for the two aircraft to return to the US.
Boeing could find a replacement buyer in Malaysia Airlines, however, which has said it was talking to the manufacturer about acquiring jets that may become available should Chinese airlines stop taking deliveries.
Bloomberg also quoted Malaysia News Agency as reporting that Izham Ismail, the CEO of Malaysia Airlines' parent company, said on the 21st that it was actively negotiating with Boeing to purchase new aircraft, and if China decided to stop receiving aircraft, Malaysia Airlines was willing to buy these passenger planes.
Recently Delta Air Lines announced it would pause deliveries from Airbus factories in Canada and Europe to avoid the blanket 10 percent tariff that is now in effect on virtually all goods imported to the U.S.
Delta Air Lines has refused to pay the tariff costs imposed on planes made by the Airbus SE, a potential point of tension for carriers globally as US President Donald Trump’s trade war injects new volatility into the aviation market.
As per the Delta Chief Executive Officer Ed Bastian, he has been “very clear” with Airbus and would defer any deliveries with the additional expenses. The carrier is working with Airbus to minimize the impact of the delayed acceptance.
U.S. has raised the baseline tariffs on Chinese imports to 145 per cent, which was reciprocated by China with a 125 per cent tariff on US goods.
As reported by Reuters, a Chinese airline taking delivery of a Boeing jet could be crippled by the tariffs, given that a new 737 MAX has a market value of around US$55 million (RM240 million), according to IBA, an aviation consultancy.
The return of the B737 MAX jets, Boeing’s best-selling model, is the latest sign of disruption to new aircraft deliveries from a breakdown in the aerospace industry’s decades-old duty-free status.
The tariff war and apparent U-turn over deliveries comes as Boeing has been recovering from an almost five-year import freeze on 737 MAX jets and a previous round of trade tensions.
Confusion over changing tariffs could leave many aircraft deliveries in limbo, with some airline CEOs saying they would defer delivery of planes rather than pay duties, analysts say.
