How United walks away from the MAX 10

United CEO Scott Kirby is quoted by Reuters saying “Boeing is not going to be able to meet their contractual deliveries on at least many of those airplanes and let’s leave it at that.”  We also published a view on this.

What might this statement mean?  After all, the statement signals a sense of power in the hands of United.  Were it not for Airbus having no delivery slots, Kirby’s statement might have been even more forthright.  Mr. Kirby’s visit to Toulouse “leaked”, probably to add weight to “let’s leave it at that.”  We don’t know if that visit was about an existing A350 order, or something else.