Boeing is thinking of halting the manufacturing of the 737 MAX types since the airplanes are NO allowed to fly passengers , and may not6 be allowed to for months or more….
Worst?
As the company tries to fix one problem on the commercial jetliner?
They find another…
The company IS taking a hit , which is trickling down to it’s suppliers around the country….
Boeing could be trying to leverage the plane’s safety and ok to get back in the air against the countries economy….
But if the airplanes aren’t safe ?
Money shouldn’t be the factor to put them back in air…
Boeing has said it expected the Max to return to service late this year. But Boeing and regulators keep finding new problems with the model, leading to a cascading series of delays.
“If that timeline changes significantly, we will have to evaluate these other scenarios,” Mr. Muilenburg said. “There’s no one specific trigger.”
Mr. Muilenburg said the decision to halt production would depend on various issues, including the date the Max is likely to return to service, as well as its ability to store and maintain the hundreds of completed planes not yet delivered.
He added that temporarily halting Max production might make more sense than reducing production levels. Given what it costs to operate and staff the production line, the Max program could become unprofitable if Boeing does not make enough planes each month.
“It is significant that not only Muilenburg talked about, but that Greg Smith talked about it, too,” said Mr. Hamilton. “For those of us that have followed Boeing for decades, this is them raising the caution flag.”
The longer the Max stays grounded, the bigger the financial fallout.
The three United States carriers that fly the Max — Southwest Airlines, American Airlines and United Airlines — have canceled thousands of flights into November, depressing their revenue. Ryanair, the Irish budget airline, said this month that it would scale back expansion plans because the Max planes it ordered were delayed.
SpiritAerosystems, the largest supplier for the Max, has already cut hours and pay for 4,000 workers, and is especially vulnerable to a production halt. And General Electric, which makes the Max engines through a partnership with Safran of France, is also expected to record a dip in revenue as a result of the grounding when it reports earnings next week.
“If Boeing has to halt production, which we do not expect but which is a possibility, it would have a big ripple effect on suppliers throughout the supply chain,” said Jim Corridore, an analyst at CFRA Research.
A production shutdown would be particularly painful in the Seattle area, where Boeing makes the 737 Max and most of its other commercial airplanes.
“For every direct Boeing job, there are three to four indirect Boeing jobs,” Mr. Hamilton said…..
Note…
The airlines could always switch to Airbus A-320’s or A-321’s..….
(There have been about 400 B-7373 Max A/C built and over 8,000 A-320 series built)
image…Bloomberg
Southwest Airlines will no longer fly out of Newark Liberty International Airport over delays in Boeing returning the 737 Max jet to service.
The airline said Thursday it will end flights out of the New Jersey airport starting Nov. 3, and will consolidate area flights to New York’s LaGuardia Airport.
Southwest said it was a financial decision, claiming that Boeing’s “extensive delays in returning the MAX to service” have led to “financial results at Newark” that are “below expectations.”
CEO Gary Kelly, in the company statement, said the 737 Max grounding following two deadly crashes reduced operating income by an estimated $175 million in the second quarter alone….
The Hill…