Boeing reported Tuesday no new plane orders in January and a drop in jet deliveries as the protracted grounding of the 737 MAX continued to weigh on the company.

The aerospace giant booked orders for 45 jets in January 2019, but none during that period this year, according to its website, the latest bit of negative news since the MAX was grounded in March 2019 following two deadly crashes.

Deliveries also fell to 13 in January 2020, compared with 46 in the year-ago period.

Boeing in January reported its first annual loss in more than two decades due to the MAX crisis, which has forced billions of dollars in settlements to carriers and added billions more in added production costs.

Boeing has halted deliveries of the jets and temporarily ceased production of the planes.

The company is targeting mid-2020 to win regulatory approval to resume flights on the MAX. On Tuesday, Federal Aviation Administration chief Steve Dickson said in Singapore that a MAX certification flight had still not been scheduled, a key step in the process.

"We are approaching a milestone, the certification flight is the next major milestone," Dickson said.

But he added the flight was not scheduled yet "because we still have a few issues to resolve... We are waiting for proposals from Boeing on a few items."

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© 2020 AFP