President Donald Trump said on Friday that China has agreed to purchase 200 Boeing aircraft, with the potential for that commitment to expand to as many as 750 planes. He added the jets would be equipped with GE Aerospace engines. Details such as the specific delivery schedule or exact models beyond broad references were not immediately available.
Trump described the arrangement as including roughly 200 planes and a promise of up to 750 if performance met expectations. Boeing characterized the announcement as an initial commitment for 200 aircraft and said it anticipated further commitments to follow. The company uses the term commitments to denote preliminary deals that are not yet finalized and are not recorded on its official order backlog.
If completed, the purchase would be Boeing’s first major Chinese deal in nearly a decade, after the US planemaker had been largely shut out of China’s market amid trade tensions. Boeing said it looked forward to continuing to address China’s aircraft demand.
A delegation of US executives traveled with Trump to China, including Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg and GE Aerospace chief Larry Culp, to pursue contracts and settle business disputes. In a Fox News interview, Trump said Chinese leader Xi Jinping committed to the 200-aircraft purchase and referenced a mix that would include widebody 777s as well as 737 narrowbodies.
For China, a large order from Boeing would help secure capacity while production of the domestically developed COMAC C919 narrow-body falls short of Beijing’s targets. It would also help Boeing close the gap with Airbus, which has gained a substantial lead in the Chinese market in recent years.
Aviation advisory firm IBA estimated the 200-aircraft package could be worth roughly $17 billion to $19 billion if about 80 percent of the mix were MAX jets. That figure could rise to about $25 billion if a larger share, roughly 40 percent, were widebody aircraft, according to IBA analyst Samuel Kenekueyero.
The announcement would be a notable win for Trump, whose tariffs and other trade measures have yet to shrink the large US trade deficit. An eventual order exceeding 500 jets would be the largest in aviation history, surpassing IndiGo’s 500-aircraft order with Airbus, though China’s purchases would likely be distributed among the country’s three major state carriers.
Market reaction reflected some disappointment over the reported size. Boeing shares fell nearly 4 percent on Thursday after Trump described the 200-plane deal, below many analysts’ expectations, and were down about 2.6 percent on Friday. GE Aerospace shares also slipped roughly 2 percent.
Industry sources had indicated Boeing was negotiating for at least 500 narrowbody jets tied to the Beijing summit, along with dozens of widebodies and the possibility of additional orders later. Trump said Xi would make a return visit to Washington in September, suggesting further negotiations or announcements could occur then.
Concerns about after-sales support have damped some buying decisions in China. Independent aviation expert Li Hanming noted that customers are reluctant to buy equipment without firm guarantees on maintenance and parts support, pointing to prior US threats of export restrictions as a deterrent. If buyers fear parts embargoes, Li said, few would be willing to place large aircraft orders.
