Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg should join the president Donald Trump about his visit to China next week, a source familiar with the plane maker’s plans told CNBC on Thursday.
Trump is currently ready to meet with the Chinese president Xi Jinping in Beijing on May 14 and 15.
Ortberg said during a call for results late last month, China could soon place an order for a “large number” of Boeing planes, ending a years-long drought for the company.
But any new deal with China depends “100%” on U.S.-China relations, including the outcome of the Trump-Xi summit, Ortberg said.
While Boeing recently resumption of deliveries of certain aircraft to China in the years following a break after two crash of the company’s 737 Max 8 jets in 2018 and 2019, it’s been nearly a decade since Chinese airlines placed a large order with Boeing.
These airlines, however, purchased from Boeing’s main rival, Airbus. China Southern Airlines has agreed to buy 137 Airbus A320s worth $21.4 billion at list prices, according to a report last week on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
Airbus orders from China, including the sale of China Southern, since 2025 are worth about $55 billion at list prices, the exchange publication said – final prices were not disclosed and airlines generally receive discounts for large orders.
In March, China was close to a deal to order up to 500 Boeing 737 Max planes, Bloomberg reported at the time.
Read more about CNBC’s politics coverageThe order was to be unveiled during Trump’s trip to China, which was originally scheduled to take place in late March and early April. But that travel plan has been delayed at the request of the United States in light of the war in Iran, which began on February 28, according to Trump.
The war has put new strains on relations between Trump and Xi, raising fears that the trip to China could once again be delayed or canceled entirely. China is the world’s largest buyer of oil and gas from the Persian Gulf, where energy flows have slowed to a trickle while the Strait of Hormuz remains clogged by war.
A massive order from Chinese airlines, while expected, would be a big boost for Boeing, which is ramping up production of a new narrow-body Max as well as its 787 Dreamliner jumbo jets after years of safety and manufacturing crises.
China was the first country to ground the 737 Max after the 2019 crash. lifted its anchor at the end of 2021, about a year after the United States.
