Boeing orders outpace cancellations for third consecutive month, but Max deliveries still paused

Boeing‘s April aircraft orders outpaced cancellations for a third consecutive month but deliveries of its bestselling 737 Max plane are still paused as it scrambles for a fix to an electrical issue.

Boeing last month said it halted deliveries of the planes, which had been grounded for 20 months until last November, after the company made fixes following two fatal crashes. It has been working on a service bulletin for airlines to repair the newly detected problem. The issue has taken more than 100 of the planes already with airline customers out of service until it is complete and has dragged on longer than expected. 

The company won orders for 25 new planes last month while customers canceled 17, bringing the net gain in orders for the month to eight.

Deliveries of its 787 Dreamliner, which resumed in March, picked up in April after a five-month pause due to a different manufacturing flaw. Boeing delivered nine Dreamliners last month, including one to American Airlines, and another to United Airlines. It delivered a total of 17 planes last month. CEO Dave Calhoun warned on a quarterly call with analysts in late April that Max deliveries would be “very light” because of the electrical issue.

Boeing has 4,045 planes on backorder, close to 3,200 of them for Max jets and 433 for Dreamliners as of the end of April.