Boeing (BA 0.01%) released its latest report on airplane orders received -- and canceled -- through May 27 on Thursday. And for the first time in a long time, the company had some really "big" news to announce. Boeing's drought of big-plane orders has finally broken.
To date this year, the aerospace giant has booked:
- 426 "gross" orders for various flavors of its 737 regional airliner
- six orders for the 777 airliner
- one 747 order
- one 787 order
For months on end, Boeing has reported dozens and dozens of sales of its ever-popular 737 regional airliner -- but not a single large-plane order has shown up on the company's order book since late February. That ended this week, with Boeing's receipt of an order for two new widebody 777s from an unidentified customer(s). Working off an admittedly small base, this order upped Boeing's orders for 777s placed this year by 50%, form four to six.
The company also booked orders this week for a dozen new 737s -- also from unidentified customer(s).
No new cancellations were reported for the week. As a result, Boeing's 434 gross orders for planes placed to date, minus the 54 cancellations last reported, results in a net gain of 380 planes to Boeing's order book for the year, up 14 from a week ago. Deliveries through April totalled 217.
