Boeing orders tumble as troubled aircraft maker struggles to overcome its latest crisis

Boeing orders tumbled in April and were outnumbered by canceled sales in another sign of the crisis gripping the troubled aircraft manufacturer.

Boeing said Tuesday that it received orders for seven planes last month, an unusually small number. That wasn’t enough to offset canceled sales covering 33 planes, 29 of which were related to the shutdown of Lynx Air, a Canadian discount airline that stopped flying in late February.

As expected, deliveries of new Boeing jetliners were weak, at 24 in April, pushing the U.S. company farther behind Airbus, its European rival.

Through the first four months of the year, Airbus has delivered 203 commercial planes, compared with 107 for Boeing. Deliveries are an important source of cash for the companies.

The Federal Aviation Administration is limiting production of new Boeing 737 Max jets while the company tries to improve its manufacturing quality.

The clampdown on production came after a panel called a door plug blew out of an Alaska Airlines 737 Max shortly after takeoff from Portland, Oregon, in January. Pilots were able to land the plane safely, but the incident has cast Boeing into its deepest crisis since the deadly crashes of two Max jets in 2018 and 2019.

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Current and former Boeing employees have accused the company of taking safety shortcuts, and the Arlington, Virginia-based company is under investigations by the FAA, the National Transportation Safety Board and the Justice Department.

While Boeing’s April numbers were bleak, the company said it hit a milestone by delivering the 1,500th 737 Max last month to Ireland’s Ryanair.