Boeing one incident away from 737 production halt, lessor says
One of the aircraft industry’s most influential leaders believes Boeing will face a heavier regulatory backlash if there are further production snags such as the one suspected of causing a door plug blowout on an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 jet.
If there is one more significant problem “the FAA will stop (737) production”, Air Lease Corp, Executive Chairman Steven Udvar-Hazy told reporters at the Airline Economics conference in Dublin on Monday, referring to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
However, he played down concerns of a systemic problem, saying the incident was contained to the Renton plant outside Seattle where the plane was assembled.
Investigators are probing whether bolts were missing or wrongly fitted when the airplane was delivered just eight weeks before the Jan. 5 blowout that led to a partial grounding.
→ Boeing delivers first 737 MAX to China from 2019.
The FAA last week took the unusual step of capping Boeing 737 production at current levels.
Answering questions at the conference, Udvar-Hazy, one of the founders of a booming aviation finance industry, called on Boeing to display its once-vaunted leadership in aircraft design but stopped short of calling for management changes.
“I think where the Boeing board and Boeing management has not paid enough attention to is where do we go from here, what is the next generation of airplane? What will Boeing be able to produce that will be a step-change improvement in operating economics to what they have today,” he said.
“So in that respect, I fault Boeing. As far as fixing their problems, there’s enough written in the media; I don’t have to really comment on that.”
He also cast doubt on Airbus plans to raise core single-aisle production to 75 a month in 2026 and said the new A321XLR model, which is part of the plan, would be 16-18 months late.
With information from Reuters
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