Boeing has forecast that total deliveries in 2023 of new 737 Max aircraft are likely to fall within the company's original target range of 400-450 jets, despite recent fuselage manufacturing issues affecting their production. The speed with which the fuselage fittings issue is corrected will determine whether the total number of Max deliveries falls within the high or low end of that range, Boeing's finance chief Brian West said on 25 May during the Wolfe Research Global Transportation and Industrials Conference in New York. Spirit AeroSystems in April submitted to Boeing a notification of escapement (NOE) alerting the airframer to a quality issue on the aft fuselage section of certain models of the 737 fuselage that Spirit builds. Boeing disclosed in mid-April that the issue "will likely affect a significant number of undelivered 737 Max airplanes, both in production and in storage", adding that it expects deliveries of Max aircraft to be delayed in the near term. During the 25 May call, West said: "As we think about deliveries on the 737, April was 18 [deliveries], [which] was pretty much expected given when this NOE hit. "We still expect the first half of the year to be about 30 per month and the back half to be about 40 per month. That puts us right within the range of our 400-450 deliveries for this calendar year on the 737. "That range will be dictated by the performance of this recovery on the 737 fuselage. So far so good." West notes that Boeing has dedicated "lots of resources" to working with Spirit and has begun to deliver out of inventory "reworked", fully corrected Max aircraft affected by the NOE. "The times that we had thought we'd take on the front end and the back end [of this process] is holding firm. So, good progress. [There's] more work to do but there is a level of confidence with the team." West is seeing improvement in the global supply chain, which continues to be impaired coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic. "[It's] better, but not healed," he says, adding: "That will always be something that we're going to be very focused on – trying to make sure that we can do all we can to help that supply base heal." Both Spirit and Boeing have kept their goals of increasing aircraft production. The Kansas-based shipset provider aims to increase 737 production to 38 aircraft per month in August and to 42 per month in October. The company expects to deliver 390-420 Max fuselages to Boeing by the end of 2023. Boeing seeks to increase Max production to 50 per month by 2025 while increasing the pace of shipments to avoid overloading its inventory.

Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG) has signed an offtake agreement with Petronas Dagangan (PDB) to supply it more than 230,000t of neat SAF to MAG's airlines from 2027. The SAF will be produced at Petronas' co-processing plant in Melaka and will be supplied directly to Kuala Lumpur International airport, initially for flights operated by Malaysia Airlines, and subsequently Firefly and MASwings. The agreement follows the continuation of the partnership established between MAG and PDB in 2021, under which both parties explored potential collaborative opportunities to advance the sustainability agenda, including the supply and adoption of SAF at KLIA, it adds. Through this partnership, MAG has operated 19 domestic and international cargo and passenger flights powered by SAF through its group of aviation companies.

China Eastern Airlines has officially put the first Comac C919 into revenue service, successfully completing its inaugural flight between Shanghai Hongqiao and Beijing Capital airports. Flight MU9191 departed from Hongqiao airport at 10:33 CST on 28 May, and landed just under who hours later at Beijing Capital, before departing on a scheduled service at 14:54 and returning to Hongqiao. The aircraft is registered as B-919A (MSN 00007) and is configured with eight business and 156 economy class seats. It was delivered to China Eastern on 9 December 2022. China Eastern states that it will also deploy the aircraft on services between Shanghai Hongqiao and Chengdu before launching it on other domestic routes. The entry into revenue service of the C919 is a major milestone for Comac and the wider Chinese aerospace industry. The programme was first announced in 2007, and the type made its maiden flight in 2017, but it was not until 29 September 2022 that it was granted type certification from the Civil Aviation Administration of China. Although the aircraft is manufactured in China, the C919 has a large amount of Western content – either acquired directly or through local joint ventures – including the CFM International Leap-1C engines, landing gear from Liebherr Aerospace, and flight control actuation systems from Parker Aerospace. Aero Engine Corporation of China (AECC) is developing an indigenous powerplant for the C919, the CJ-1000A, which has reportedly been conducting flight testing using a modified Xian Y-20 transport aircraft. Fleets data shows that Comac holds orders for 662 C919s, with options on a further 40 and letters of intent for 658 units from 31 customers – mostly Chinese leasing companies.