Well, at the Paris air show the balance was 200 B737 MAX vs 234 A320Neo, so just 17% more for Airbus.
I think Boeing losing trust as a company could be a more important factor than the MAX name. After the recent revelations about Boeing hiding issues with their aircraft for years, from both the airlines and the FAA, I wouldn't blame airlines for thinking "What else is Boeing hiding from us? Is it worth the risk to keep buying from them when there is an alternative?"
Later edit: I just noticed you mentioned no firm orders. Indeed there were no firm MAX orders, but orders that were not firm represented 85% of the total number of aircraft ordered at Paris. So, with 4 MAX orders of 50 aircraft each, statistically there was about an 50-50 chance that one of those orders would be firm (0.85 to the power of 4 is about 0.52, so the probability that none of the 4 orders are firm would be around 52%). So it could be just a fluke.
Last edited by MemberBerry; 22nd Jun 2019 at 15:35.
Reason: Add comment about firm orders.