Boeing close to 500-jet order with Trump-Xi summit

Published Sat, Mar 7, 2026 · 12:11 PM

[LOS ANGELES] Boeing is closing in on one of the largest sales in its history, a 500-aircraft order for 737 Max jets set to be unveiled when US President Donald Trump travels to Beijing for his first state visit to China since 2017, sources familiar with the matter said.

The two sides are also in talks for a widebody sale that includes about 100 Boeing 787 Dreamliner and 777X jets, said the sources, who asked not to be identified as the talks are confidential. A deal for the twin-aisle aircraft would likely be announced at a later date and isn’t expected to feature in the upcoming summit, one of the sources said.

Boeing’s aircraft stand to feature prominently in a trade agreement between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Trump, who has used the US planemaker as a tool to sweeten accords with other governments.

The US head of state plans to visit China from Mar 31 to Apr 2 for the meeting, then Xi is expected to visit Washington later in the year.

Boeing had no comment, while China’s Ministry of Commerce did not respond to a request for comment outside of regular hours. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Boeing shares jumped as much as 4 per cent following Bloomberg’s report. The stock was the best performer on the 30-member Dow Jones Industrial Average index as at 2.30 pm on Friday in New York.

If it materialises, the agreement would cap years of negotiations between Boeing and China’s airlines and end a lengthy order drought from the world’s second-biggest aviation market. It would also underscore how the interests of the president’s trade agenda often overlap with those of Boeing, the largest US exporter.

But given the fraught geopolitical backdrop, Boeing’s order bonanza is not assured, two of the sources cautioned. The US president’s trip could also be postponed amid the ongoing war with Iran.

There’s a chance talks could hit an impasse and a deal is not completed, they cautioned. The nation’s leaders were closing in on a similar agreement last year and in 2023.

The two sides are still negotiating the specifics of the announcement, with the US pushing for a firm commitment and not just a headline-grabbing dollar value, one of the sources said.

The US and China are wrangling over other aviation issues ahead of the summit, including US restrictions on exports of engines and other technology crucial to China’s marquee Comac C919 jetliner, one of the sources said.

China has been pushing the Trump Administration to allow aviation suppliers, including GE Aerospace, Honeywell International and RTX, to step up shipments of components needed to manufacture the C919, a competitor to Boeing’s 737 aircraft.

The country’s airlines need western-made aircraft to support their growth plans and are eager to ensure deliveries are in the pipeline at a time when supply is constrained.

Boeing only had 134 unfilled aircraft orders from China as at Feb 27. The company also held 875 orders from unidentified customers, a category that at times has masked unannounced deals with Chinese customers. BLOOMBERG