SEOUL, April 21, 2025 — A second Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft intended for a Chinese airline is flying back to the United States instead of being delivered in China.
Flight tracking data on Monday showed the jet departed Boeing’s Zhoushan completion center near Shanghai and landed for refueling in Guam, en route across the Pacific.
This marks the second such Boeing narrow-body to reverse course from China in as many days, appearing to fall victim to escalating tit-for-tat tariffs between Washington and Beijing.
The unusual return underscores how trade tensions and past safety issues continue to complicate Boeing’s efforts to rebuild its China business.
Second 737 MAX delivery reversed
The latest jet’s journey back to Boeing comes one day after another 737 MAX, painted in Xiamen Airlines livery, made a similar trip from Zhoushan and landed at Boeing Field in Seattle.
Both aircraft were originally bound for Chinese carriers, but their return suggests deliveries are being stalled or canceled.
It is not clear whether Chinese regulators or the airlines themselves decided to send the planes back, Reuters noted. However, industry analysts point to surging bilateral tariffs as a likely cause.
Just this month, the United States raised baseline import duties on Chinese goods to 145%, and Beijing retaliated with a 125% tariff on U.S. goods. For a new Boeing 737 MAX valued at around $55 million, such a duty could effectively double the cost, making a handover to a Chinese airline financially unviable.
Rather than force carriers to pay a crippling import tax, the jets are being ferried back to Boeing, where they may be reassigned to other buyers.
Boeing has already fielded interest from Malaysia Airlines about taking jets originally earmarked for China, should Chinese deliveries remain halted.
Political tensions stall Boeing’s post-grounding milestone
These back-to-back turnarounds are symbolically significant.
They represent the first Boeing 737 MAX deliveries to Chinese customers since 2019 – and their abrupt reversal highlights how political friction is now undercutting what should have been a milestone in Boeing’s post-grounding recovery.
The 737 MAX is Boeing’s best-selling model, and China is one of the world’s largest aviation markets. For decades, airliners flowed freely between Boeing’s Seattle factories and Chinese airlines under a duty-free civil aerospace trade regime.
That paradigm has fractured:
The return of these jets is “the latest sign of disruption to new aircraft deliveries” now that the industry’s long-standing duty-free status has broken down amid a trade war.
The timing is a setback for Boeing, which only recently saw Chinese authorities lift a years-long freeze on 737 MAX imports.
Persistent safety worries and regulatory pressure
Even as Boeing grapples with tariffs abroad, it continues to face safety and quality challenges that keep the 737 MAX under scrutiny.
Multiple U.S. Senate hearings in 2024 focused on whether Boeing resolved the cultural and oversight gaps identified after the two MAX crashes.
Several whistleblowers testified, alleging that production-line haste and internal pressure led to documentation lapses and parts oversights.
In one incident, an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 had a cabin door panel fail in flight, forcing an emergency landing. Though no injuries occurred, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the blow-out ‘should have never happened and it cannot happen again,’ and opened a formal investigation into Boeing’s manufacturing and quality-control processes.
The FAA also launched an audit of the Renton factory that builds most 737 models, finding multiple compliance gaps that required rework.
Boeing leadership has acknowledged the concerns, implementing new quality-control protocols and broader safety initiatives.
Despite these efforts, skepticism persists.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has indicated it’s closely monitoring how Boeing implements changes, while the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has demanded strict compliance checks for every MAX rolled out.
Regulators in China, who were always seen as cautious, became even more vigilant after the global scrutiny of the MAX.
Any new incident involving the model now raises the specter of further regulatory setbacks, including possible re-groundings.
Production delays and mounting financial stress
Alongside safety pressures, Boeing has been wrestling with production and delivery holdup
s. Supply chain disruptions, inflation, and labor strikes at key suppliers have hampered aircraft output.
In 2024, Boeing delivered just 348 commercial planes — far below expectations and significantly fewer than European rival Airbus, which shipped 766. Among the aircraft stuck in rework or awaiting sign-off were numerous 737 MAX jets.
The production hurdles mean carriers that banked on receiving new MAX planes have faced capacity shortfalls. United Airlines openly criticized Boeing’s missed delivery targets, hinting it might switch some orders to Airbus if Boeing cannot guarantee on-time arrivals.
Ryanair, likewise, expressed frustration with repeated delivery pushbacks, though it has so far maintained a relationship with Boeing.
On the financial side, Boeing has endured annual net losses every year since 2019, largely attributable to the MAX grounding, pandemic fallout, and subsequent manufacturing snarls. While demand for single-aisle jets is surging worldwide, Boeing’s operational roadblocks have limited its ability to capitalize.
The company’s stock remains under pressure, and investors regularly question management about when the production lines can speed up reliably.
Still, lingering supply chain woes and stricter regulatory oversight continue to slow the company’s path to stability.
Future outlook — Can Boeing recover in China and beyond?
The two 737 MAX turnarounds in China underscore the fragility of Boeing’s comeback strategy.
Having only recently regained clearance to fly in one of its most important markets, Boeing now faces the reality that fresh trade tensions could shut the door again.
Analysts note that if tariffs remain high, Boeing may divert more jets originally destined for China to airlines in Southeast Asia or other regions. That helps generate some revenue but does little to rebuild Boeing’s standing with Chinese carriers.
At the same time, the manufacturer is under intense global pressure to demonstrate consistent quality and safety across its factories.
Regulators like the FAA have made it clear that any serious incident or deviation from procedure could prompt renewed restrictions — no matter how strong market demand is for the MAX.
Boeing is also working on final approvals for the 737 MAX 10 and addressing new concerns about the mid-sized 767 and the widebody 787 Dreamliner.
Despite these headwinds, demand for fuel-efficient single-aisle jets remains robust, and Boeing retains a loyal customer base.
If it can navigate the trade war and keep safety problems at bay, industry experts predict a potential turnaround.
For now, though, the symbolic sight of MAX jets leaving Boeing’s China completion center empty-handed signals how far the company still has to go.
Ultimately, whether Boeing can rebuild trust and momentum in China—and globally—depends on a delicate mix of trade diplomacy, internal reforms, and unblemished performance for years to come.
