Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg set to join Trump on China visit next week

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg is expected to join President Donald Trump on his visit to China next week, a source familiar with the planemaker's plans told CNBC on Thursday.

Trump is currently set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on May 14 and 15.

Ortberg signaled in an earnings call late last month that China could soon place an order for a "big number" of Boeing planes, breaking a yearslong drought for the company.

But any new deal with China is "100% dependent" on U.S.-Chinese relations, including the outcome of the Trump-Xi summit, Ortberg said.

While Boeing has recently resumed deliveries of some aircraft to China in the years following a pause after two crashes of the company's 737 Max 8 jets in 2018 and 2019, it's been almost a decade since Chinese airlines made a big order with Boeing.

Those airlines have, however, purchased from Boeing's main rival, Airbus. China Southern Airlines agreed to buy 137 Airbus A320 aircraft valued at $21.4 billion at list prices, according to a post on the Shanghai Stock Exchange last week.

Airbus orders from China, including the China Southern sale, since 2025 are worth about $55 billion at list prices, the post on the exchange said.

China in March was closing in on an agreement to order up to 500 of Boeing's 737 Max jets, Bloomberg reported at the time.

The order was set to be unveiled during Trump's China trip, which was originally set to take place in late March and early April. But that travel plan was delayed at the U.S.'s request in light of the Iran war, which began on Feb. 28, according to Trump.

The war has put new pressures on Trump and Xi's relationship, raising concerns that the China trip could be delayed once again or cancelled entirely. China is the world's largest buyer of oil and gas from the Persian Gulf, where energy flows have slowed to a trickle as the Strait of Hormuz remains choked off due to the war.

A massive order from Chinese airlines would be a big boost for Boeing, which is in the process of ramping up production of a new narrow-body Max, as well as its wide-body 787 Dreamliner jets, after years of safety and manufacturing crises.

China was the first country to ground the 737 Max after the 2019 crash. It lifted its grounding in late 2021, about a year after the U.S. did.