Boeing’s quality concern crisis is creating headwinds for fleet-needy airlines
Haven’t you people ever heard of… closing the jet-plane door? There was panic at the window this month when a sealed door on a Boeing 737 Max 9 plane yeeted off mid-flight, prompting an emergency landing. No one was injured during the Alaska flight, but passengers, airlines, and regulators are riled up as they try to figure out what happened.
Screw loose: Investigators found the door was missing certain bolts, and Alaska said it found loose bolts on “many” of its 737 Max 9s.
Full hangar: The FAA grounded 171 of the planes and halted plans for expanded Max production. Still, the agency gave instructions for inspecting and returning grounded Max 9s to the skies (Alaska and United flew a few over the weekend).
Awk: Boeing, whose stock has descended more than 20% this month, reports on Wednesday. Its forecast could be cloudy.
Boeing’s blues affect airlines… Alaska and United, the only two US carriers that use the 737 Max 9, canceled thousands of flights following the doorbacle. Alaska said grounded planes will cost it $150M, and United’s forecasting a Q1 loss. Both airlines’ CEOs criticized Boeing. Meanwhile, gov’t agency investigations into other Boeing models could uncover more issues. The door was just the latest in a string of problems and production delays.
Boeing is still working to build back trust following two 737 Max 8 crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people.
Quality concerns can cause quantity concerns… Boeing and its European rival Airbus dominate the tarmac (especially: Airbus A320s and Boeing 737s). Airbus surpassed Boeing as the world’s most in-demand plane maker in 2019, and Boeing’s repeated problems have helped Airbus stay in the lead. Last year, Airbus won 2.1K net orders compared to Boeing’s 1.3K. Boeing could lose more hangar real estate as it loses trust.