--when the company reported that customers cancelled a record number of orders for the 737 Max lead balloon last month, deepening the crisis the company faces between the coronavirus pandemic which has virtually frozen all commercial air flight and the continued grounding of its best-selling plane after two fatal crashes.

The US planemaker reported a total of 150 MAX cancellations in March, including 75 previously reported from Irish leasing company Avolon. New cancellations came from buyers including 34 of 135 aircraft ordered by Brazil's GOL.

Boeing, facing a 13-month-old freeze on deliveries of the MAX and now disruption to deliveries of larger planes due to the coronavirus epidemic, said it had delivered 50 planes in the first quarter, nearly a third of the 149 seen a year earlier.

Net cancellations in the month totaled 119 thanks to 31 orders for wide-body passenger planes and military aircraft. The company also delivered 20 jetliners in the month. For the entire first quarter, net orders sank to a negative 307 planes (i.e., cancellations), a sharp turnaround for a company that just over a year ago was aiming to increase output of its planes to meet strong demand.