China’s commitment to buy 200 Boeing jets during the recent visit by US President Donald Trump will be firmed up later this year and is only an “initial tranche” of a potentially far bigger deal, reports Reuters citing the planemaker’s CEO Kelly Ortberg.
Investors had expressed disappointment over the size of the deal, which was much smaller than a roughly 500-plane package that sources told Reuters was under discussion ahead of a meeting between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping this month.
But at a US conference on Wednesday, Ortberg said his trip to China alongside Trump had been “super successful” and reopened the market to Boeing’s narrowbody planes for the first time in nearly a decade after an effective order freeze due to trade tensions between Washington and Beijing. “It’s a good start. And I’m very confident that keeping that market open, that’s an initial tranche of aircraft, and there will be more to come,” Ortberg said.