Trump to visit China with Boeing CEO as potential jet deal
The potential deal would mark a major win for Boeing as it recovers from years of safety and production challenges
ATT Desk Report
US President Donald Trump is set to be accompanied by multiple CEOs on his high-stakes visit to China next week, sources told CNBC.
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, whose company is poised to ink a large aircraft order with China, is set to head to that country to join Trump, a source familiar with the plane maker’s plans said.
They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss plans that haven’t been made public.Trump is currently set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on May 14 and 15.
Ortberg said on earnings call late last month that China could soon place an order for a “big number” of Boeing planes, breaking a yearslong drought for the company. Any new deal Boeing with China is “100% dependent” on US-Chinese relations, including the outcome of the Trump-Xi summit, Ortberg said.
While Boeing has recently resumed deliveries of some aircraft to China in the years following a pause after two crashes of the company’s 737 Max 8 jets in 2018 and 2019, it’s been almost a decade since Chinese airlines made a big order with Boeing.
Those airlines have, however, purchased from Boeing’s main rival, Airbus. China Southern Airlines agreed to buy 137 Airbus A320 aircraft valued at $21.4 billion at list prices, according to a post on the Shanghai Stock Exchange last week.
Airbus orders from China, including the China Southern sale, since 2025 are worth about $55 billion at list prices, the post on the exchange said final prices weren’t disclosed and airlines generally receive discounts for big orders.
China in March was closing in on an agreement to order up to 500 of Boeing’s 737 Max jets, Bloomberg reported at the time.
A massive order from Chinese airlines, while expected, would be a big boost for Boeing, which is in the process of ramping up production of a new narrow-body Max as well as its wide-body 787 Dreamliner jets, after years of safety and manufacturing crises.
China was the first country to ground the 737 Max after the 2019 crash. It lifted its grounding in late 2021, about a year after the US did.
