New York, Aug 13 (AP) Airbus is stretching its lead over Boeing in aircraft deliveries as Boeing continues to be held back by the grounding of its 737 Max.

Chicago-based Boeing said Tuesday it delivered 19 planes in July, down from 39 in July 2018.

European rival Airbus reported 69 deliveries last month, including 52 A320neo and A321neo jets that compete with the Max.

This year through July, Boeing has delivered 258 airliners. That's down 38 per cent from a year earlier, and far behind Airbus' 458 deliveries.

Boeing halted Max deliveries in March after the second of two crashes that together killed 346 people.

Last month, Boeing reported its biggest quarterly loss — nearly USD 3 billion — after taking a USD 4.9 billion after-tax charge for the cost of compensating airlines that lost use of their Max jets. (AP)

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