Dubai: Around 400 and over – that’s the target US jet-maker Boeing is setting for itself in deliveries of its popular 737 MAX aircraft by end 2023.

Anything over that 400 would count as a definite plus as the manufacturer scrambles back into winning over market share in new orders during a time when airlines worldwide are busy with an unprecedented round of fleet expansion.

The 737 MAX family has been one of the prongs that Boeing had been hoping to make its presence felt when new orders come. But it hasn’t been a smooth ride as supply chain issues and various niggles related specifically to the 737 proved hurdles in these 3 years.

“We recently discovered we had something that didn’t comply with our original design,” said Randy Heisey, Boeing’s Managing Director of Commercial Marketing for the Middle East and Africa, and Russia and Central Asia. “So, it’s led to a pause in our deliveries. Still, we are working through that issue.”

The manufacturer handed over 344 planes to customers during the first eight months of 2023.

It was in August that Boeing confirmed its supplier Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc. had improperly drilled some holes in 737 bulkheads to help maintain cabin pressure.

This then led to an extensive inspection to fix thousands of mis-drilled holes on the 737 MAX 8 aft pressure bulkhead.

While Heisey did not provide an exact timeline for when the supply chain challenges, which surfaced amid the pandemic, would resolve, he did say it should be resolved ‘in the not-so-distant future’.

“I don’t want to put a specific date out there, but we’re expecting it sooner rather than later that we’ll have recovery of the supply chain. Unlike a light switch, it’s difficult to turn everything back on instantly, so it takes some time to spool up.

“With that in mind, we’re expecting in the not too distant future that everything should restore to the kind of production system as companies rebuild their infrastructure and have their workforce re-established and trained.”

The current challenges are not only impacting the new production build, but also impact the airline industry’s need to replace components on aerocraft during routine maintenance. “So there’s a huge amount of demand for all of the supply bases to build back up its capacity again, and that motivates those suppliers to meet their production quotas,” said Heisey.

-B