By Dan Catchpole

SEATTLE (Reuters) -Boeing heads into the Paris Air Show after a blockbuster May that included booking 303 new orders and rolling out 38 new 737 MAX jets, a production rate it has been working to reach for more than a year. The company also delivered 45 aircraft last month, it said Tuesday.

It was the sixth-highest monthly order tally in Boeing's history, according to company data.

The orders included the largest widebody jet deal in Boeing's history: Qatar Airways' order for 130 787s and 30 777Xs, plus options for another 50 of the long-haul aircraft.

Only 120 of the 787s were booked in May. The other 10 had been ordered by Qatar in March, but the customer was unidentified in Boeing's order backlog before Tuesday.

The Qatar order was announced among a string of high-profile U.S. business deals during President Donald Trump's Middle East tour. A day earlier, Saudi Arabian-owned AviLease ordered 20 737-8 MAX jets.

Another Gulf region carrier, Etihad, said it planned to order 28 widebody Boeing jets. It did not place a firm order, so the aircraft were not included in May's total. 

Canadian airline WestJet also ordered seven 737 MAX jets, and also canceled two orders for 737s. 

In total, three orders were canceled during the month, making for 300 net new orders in May. Its order backlog rose to 5,943 orders as of May 31. 

Boeing delivered 45 aircraft in the month, its fifth consecutive month of 40 or more deliveries. The total was nearly twice as many deliveries as the 24 aircraft the company handed over to customers during the same month one year earlier.

Wall Street closely monitors aircraft deliveries because planemakers can collect the majority of their payment when they hand over jets to customers.

The company handed over 31 737 MAX jets, including seven to United Airlines and four to Alaska Airlines, and seven 787s, including three to Qatar Airways from earlier orders. 

It also delivered five 777 freighters, one 767 freighter and one 737 NG to be converted into a P-8 Poseidon for the U.S. Navy.

None of the deliveries were to Chinese airlines, which stopped taking new Boeing aircraft in April as the two countries clashed over tariffs. China removed the ban after the Washington and Beijing agreed to temporarily cut tariffs. A new 737 MAX landed in China on Monday, according to flight tracking data, the first to arrive since the ban was removed. 

So far in 2025, Boeing has delivered 220 aircraft: 164 737 MAXes, three 737 NGs for conversion into P-8s, 28 787s, 16 777s and nine 767s.

European rival Airbus has delivered 243 aircraft so far this year, including 51 deliveries in May. Airbus did not announce any new orders last month, but it is expected to announce several deals during the Paris Air Show, which starts Monday.

Boeing said it rolled out 38 new 737 MAX aircraft in May, hitting a production target it has been working on for more than a year. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration capped output at 38 airplanes a month due to quality concerns exposed by a mid-air panel blowout in a nearly new 737 in January 2024.

Monthly production of its best-selling 737 MAX has varied up and down in recent years as the company grappled with internal and external production problems and constraints. A strike last year at its plants in Washington and Oregon shut down production of the popular single-aisle airplane. Since production resumed in December, the company has taken a slow and deliberate approach to increasing the rate. 

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg has said the company has to stabilize production at 38 per month for several months before asking the FAA to increase output.

All six production quality and safety metrics created by the company and U.S. regulators are green, according to the company.

(Reporting by Dan Catchpole in Seattle, Editing by Nick Zieminski and David Gregorio)