3 Chinese airlines demand compensation from Boeing
http://www.hrlnews.com/2019/05/3-chinese-airlines-demand-compensation.html
Three biggest Chinese
airlines are seeking compensation from Boeing over the grounding and
delayed delivery of 737 MAX 8 aircraft following two deadly crashes.
According to reports in Chinese media, China Southern Airlines,
China Eastern Airlines, and Air China would seek payouts from the
American aerospace giant come against the backdrop of an escalating
US-China trade war.
China Southern is Asia’s largest carrier by fleet size, China Eastern
is the country’s number two, while Air China is the state flag carrier.
A spokesman for China Eastern confirmed to AFP that a dispatch by
state-run Xinhua news agency saying the airline had presented Boeing
with a compensation claim was correct.
Neither the spokesman nor the report gave any financial or other details.
Spokespersons for China Southern and Air China could not immediately be reached for comment.
On March 11, China became the first country to order its airlines to ground the 737 MAX as a result of the two tragedies.
The day before, an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX crashed minutes after
takeoff from Addis Ababa, killing all 157 people on board, including
eight from China.
That followed the October crash of a Lion Air 737 MAX, which went
down shortly after takeoff from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on
board.
Xinhua had reported that “grounding Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes had
resulted in great losses for the company (China Eastern), and the losses
are still expanding”.
Shanghai-based China Eastern has grounded its 14 MAX planes while the
US aviation giant addresses the safety risks, Xinhua reported.
It was not immediately clear how many planes the other two airlines had grounded.
But Chinese media have previously reported that a combined 96 MAX aircraft were in service among all of China’s carriers.
There was no immediate indication that the move was related to the increasingly bitter trade conflict.
Trump launched the trade war last year to extract profound economic
reforms from Beijing, accusing China of seeking to forge global
industrial dominance through massive state intervention in markets and
the theft of US technology.
The two sides have exchanged tariffs on more than $360 billion in two-way trade.
The conflict has widened recently with the United States taking
unprecedented steps to bar US technology sales to Chinese telecom giant
Huawei.
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