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Boeing is building another 737 Max even though it hasn’t been approved to fly

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4 years ago

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The announcement came the same day that Boeing told 6,770 workers that they had lost their jobs. Another 5,520 workers have accepted voluntary purchase offers.
Boeing continued to build Max, its best-selling jet, even after landing in March 2019 following two fatal accidents that killed 346 people. This produced more than 400 jets that could not be delivered before stopping production in January amid ongoing delays in getting approval to fly back.
The company temporarily stopped building planes in January, before the Covid-19 pandemic hit most of the world’s airlines. It was unable to continue to build Max without being able to send planes and complete sales. But if it hangs up, it risks losing suppliers who might go out of business without being able to sell their parts to Boeing.

“Without a supply chain there would be nothing for us to gather so as simple as that,” Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said at an annual meeting in April when discussing the need to support company suppliers.

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic which has caused air travel to decline, airlines and aircraft rental companies have canceled orders for 299 of 737 Max. The other 240 jets have changed order status and Boeing no longer considers it as a company order.

The company still has firm orders for more than 3,800 out of 737 Max in its books. And some airlines that have pushed back jet deliveries because the number of planes they parked say they hope to receive 737 Max shipments one day.

“We still want to get Max back to service,” Southwest CEO Gary Gary told shareholders at the company’s annual meeting earlier this month. “Max’s aircraft is superior than that [older versions of the] 737 that we are operating. This burns less fuel. This is a very good plane. And of course in this environment, we want to retire some of our old planes, avoiding expensive maintenance and replacing new aircraft. “

Southwest has 34 of the jets planted, more than any other airline, and Boeing has built an additional 25 that are waiting to be sent. Even though, Southwest (LUV) reached an agreement with Boeing to reduce the number of Max jets to be added to its fleet until the end of 2021.

Southwest originally planned to receive the shipment of 107 737 Boeing Max jets between 2019 and 2021, and 19 others from aircraft leasing companies. But so far only received three from the plane because of the runway. Under the agreement with Boeing, it will now take delivery of no more than 48 jets until the end of 2021, and delay orders for at least 59 others.

“We don’t need Max right now. We don’t need all the aircraft we have,” Kelly told investors in April when reporting the airline’s first quarterly operating loss in 11 years.
The airline said last month that it did not expect to use land planes until November at the earliest, and that could encourage aircraft use again.

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