The FAA’s decision about the aircraft raises a number of questions Could it be that two years of agony for Boeing are finally over?
The aerospace giant – America’s biggest exporter – has been in a state of turmoil since being forced to ground the 737 MAX after crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia in 2018 and 2019 killed 346 people.
The longest grounding in commercial aviation history, 617 days in total, has cost Boeing at least $20bn (£15bn) and forced the company to cut tens of thousands of jobs, some 19,000 of them in this year alone, with at least another 7,000 to come. July 2020: Boeing 737 MAX completes test flight more than year after ban That does not include the countless redundancies at Boeing’s suppliers which began when the company froze production of the 737 MAX in December last year.
Among those losing their job was Dennis Muilenberg, the former chief executive , whose abject failure to apologise to families for the crashes in a timely manner was a textbook example of ‘how not to do it’ which will be taught for years to come in business schools.
Now, though, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the main regulator, has cleared the way for Boeing’s best-selling passenger jet to resume commercial flights.
The decision raises a number of questions. More from Business
The first is how quickly Boeing can clear the regulatory hurdles the FAA and others have set before the plane can actually return to the skies.
The FAA has demanded more training for pilots and software updates to prevent a repetition of the incidents that led to the crashes. Former boss Denis Muilenburg was criticised over his handling of the crisis That may take time, at least until the end of next month, when American Airlines has pledged to use the aircraft on its Miami to New York route two days before New Year’s Eve.
Southwest Airlines, another of the big four US carriers, has said it hopes to have the planes in the air by the middle of next year.
Steve Dickson, the FAA administrator, told CNBC today: "It’s the most scrutinised airplane in history and it’s ready to go.
"This is not a typical certification process we have undergone."But this is not the end of the safety journey – there is a lot of work for Boeing and the airlines to do."This airplane, the work that we’ve done with the design changes […]
