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Second Boeing jet starts return from China, tracker shows

Published: 21 Apr. 2025, 12:59

A Boeing 737 MAX aircraft is assembled at the company's plant in Renton, Washington, on June 25, 2024. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

A second Boeing jet intended for use by a Chinese airline was heading back to the United States on Monday, flight tracking data showed, in what appears to be another victim of the tit-for-tat bilateral tariffs launched by U.S. President Donald Trump in his global trade offensive.

The 737 MAX took off from Boeing's Zhoushan completion center near Shanghai on Monday morning and was heading toward the U.S. territory of Guam, data from flight tracking website AirNav Radar showed.

Guam is one of the stops such flights make on the 5,000-mile journey across the Pacific Ocean between Boeing's U.S. production hub in Seattle and the Zhoushan completion center, where planes are ferried by Boeing for final work and delivery to a Chinese carrier.

On Sunday, a 737 MAX painted with the livery for China's Xiamen Airlines made the return journey from Zhoushan and landed at Seattle's Boeing Field.

It is not clear which party made the decision for the two aircraft to return to the United States.

Trump this month raised baseline tariffs on Chinese imports to 145 percent. In retaliation, China has imposed a 125 percent tariff on U.S. goods. A Chinese airline taking delivery of a Boeing jet could be crippled by the tariffs, given that a new 737 MAX has a market value of around $55 million, according to IBA, an aviation consultancy.

The plane flew from Seattle to Zhoushan just under a month ago.

Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A safety instruction leaflet of an Air China Boeing 737-800 is pictured with magazines in a seat compartment as a stewardess serves a passenger before it take off at Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport, in Hangzhou, China, on April 16. [AP/YONHAP]

The return of the 737 MAX jets, Boeing's best-selling model, is the latest sign of disruption to new aircraft deliveries from a breakdown in the aerospace industry's decades-old duty-free status.

The tariff war and apparent U-turn over deliveries comes as Boeing has been recovering from an almost five-year import freeze on 737 MAX jets and a previous round of trade tensions.

Confusion over changing tariffs could leave many aircraft deliveries in limbo, with some airline CEOs saying they would defer delivery of planes rather than pay duties, analysts say.

Reuters