Boeing's pile of problems gets bigger as a key buyer hesitates

More safety checks are being planned on undelivered planes to China following the Alaska Airlines blowout

- Yoko Kubota

Boeing's long-awaited delivery resumption of its 737 MAX jets to China faces fresh delays after the Alaska Airlines incident, as the plane maker was poised to benefit from the thaw in U.S.-China relations.

China Southern Airlines, one of several Chinese carriers with undelivered MAX jets, has been readying to receive Boeing's planes as early as January, people familiar with the matter said. Now the airline is planning to conduct additional safety inspections on those aircraft following the incident, the people said, though the jets to be delivered aren't the same variant as Alaska's MAX 9.

It couldn't be determined how long the additional inspections could take, but they add uncertainty to the timing of the deliveries, which have been frozen by Beijing for years since two fatal crashes of the 737 MAX 8.

China's aviation regulator has also instructed the country's airlines to conduct precautionary safety inspections on their Boeing 737 MAX fleets, people briefed about the matter said. The MAX 9 isn't among the fleets of Chinese carriers. Boeing declined to comment. China Southern and the Civil Aviation Administration of China didn't respond to requests for comment.

On Monday, Boeing sent a memo to staff saying it was doing additional inspections of its 737 production line and sending additional staff to check the door plugs and other work at Spirit AeroSystems, which supplies the fuselages. Boeing and airlines are still developing a process to inspect the grounded MAX 9 planes so they can return to service.

Resuming deliveries of the 737 MAX jets is a crucial step for Boeing to bring its business back on course in China. The market is set to account for a fifth of the world's airplane deliveries in the next two decades, Boeing forecasts.