By Lisa Barrington and Dan Catchpole
SEATTLE (Reuters) -A new Boeing 737 MAX painted with Xiamen Airlines livery left Seattle on Friday on the first leg of the route used to shuttle jets to the company’s delivery center in China, according to flight records on FlightRadar24.
The plane was bound for Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, one of the refueling stops Boeing jets make on their way across the Pacific to China. Deliveries to Chinese customers were abruptly halted in early April as the U.S. and China edged toward a trade war.
A Boeing spokesperson declined to comment on the jetliner’s ultimate destination. Xiamen Airlines and the Chinese government could not immediately be reached for comment.
Deliveries to China of new Boeing aircraft stopped in April in response to tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump. However, on May 12, the U.S. and China agreed to roll back the bulk of tariffs for 90 days.
Trump said on Friday that U.S. and China representatives would meet June 9 in London to talk about a trade deal.
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg on May 29 said Chinese airlines would resume taking deliveries of Boeing aircraft in June.
At least three 737 MAX jets were repatriated by Boeing to the United States in April from Boeing’s Zhoushan completion center near Shanghai, where they had been placed for final work before delivery to Chinese carriers. The first plane to return from China was the same one that left Friday for Hawaii.
Boeing has previously said customers in China would not take delivery of new planes due to tariffs, and it was looking to resell potentially dozens of aircraft.
Beijing has not commented on why Boeing deliveries stopped, but said Chinese airlines and Boeing had been severely affected by U.S.-imposed tariffs.
China represents about 10% of Boeing’s commercial backlog and is an important and growing aviation market.
Boeing in April said it had planned for 50 jets to go to Chinese carriers during the rest of the year, with 41 in production or pre-built.
While Boeing had said other airlines are interested in taking rejected Chinese planes, the planemaker has not sent the planes elsewhere despite aiming to reduce inventory levels.
(Reporting By Lisa Barrington in Seoul and Dan Catchpole in Seattle; editing by Diane Craft)
