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Plans to mandate simulator training for pilots before Boeing Co. BA -6.23% ’s 737 MAX can return to service—already a time-consuming and costly undertaking—could face a further complication: personal friction between the plane maker’s staff and U.S. government officials.
Internal Boeing messages recently made public amid House and Senate investigations showed company pilots ridiculing their counterparts at the Federal Aviation Administration.
Now several of those agency experts are responsible for helping approve a version of Boeing’s updated training programs, according to industry and government officials familiar with the details.
How the two sides get along could partly determine how long it takes to get the MAX flying again, nearly a year after it was grounded world-wide following two fatal crashes that claimed 346 lives.
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The biggest supplier of parts for the Boeing Co. 737 MAX plans to restart limited production in March, regardless of the plane maker’s ability to win backing from regulators for the jet to resume commercial service.
Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc. plans a gradual resumption of making fuselages, engine pylons and other parts for the jet, which has been grounded world-wide since last March following the second of two fatal crashes that claimed 346 lives.
Spirit, based in Wichita, Kan., derives more than half of its revenues from the MAX, and last month announced plans to cut almost 3,200 jobs in Kansas and Oklahoma, and suspend its dividend to save money.
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No-repair automobiles. Self-changing diapers. Never-wilt fresh flowers. Comfortable middle seats.
Which one might actually happen? Airlines and seat manufacturers have figured out that adding an extra inch of width to the middle seat can actually improve comfort for everyone in a row.
Frontier, Spirit, Air New Zealand, Etihad, Korean Air and a dozen other airlines have been installing coach seats with a bit more width for the poor soul in the middle. And the results have surprised airlines: Comfort scores improve across the row because the passenger in the middle isn’t infringing as much on the passengers on either side.
“That additional inch of benefit has translated into making the middle seat almost like you are agnostic across the row, which is really fascinating,” Spirit chief executive Ted Christie says.
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United Airlines Holdings Inc. said it would cut domestic flights, as the spreading coronavirus depresses bookings.
Airlines world-wide have parked more than 1,000 planes as bookings have fizzled and concerns have risen that depressed demand could extend into the busy peak summer season.
The carrier said Wednesday it plans to store some wide-body jets and is offering staff unpaid leaves of absence in April. The effort is the latest by airlines to mitigate the shock to the industry caused by cascading travel restrictions and passenger concerns over flying. Companies including Boeing Co. BA -6.20% are instructing their employees to cut out unnecessary travel.
Other U.S. carriers have sought to stimulate demand by offering passengers the option to change flights without penalties.
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A government report to be released in coming days says Southwest Airlines Co. LUV failed to prioritize safety and the airline’s regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration, hasn’t done enough about it.
Southwest pilots flew more than 17 million passengers on planes with unconfirmed maintenance records over roughly two years, and in 2019 smashed both wingtips of a jet on a runway while repeatedly trying to land amid gale-force winds, according to the Transportation Department report, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The lapses are highlighted in a draft audit by the agency’s inspector general that also criticizes the FAA’s oversight of the carrier as lax, ineffective and inconsistent. The document indicates no agency enforcement action resulted from those safety slip-ups or certain other alleged hazards. In some cases, the report alleges, the FAA’s overall approach served to “justify continued noncompliance with safety regulations.”
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Today’s Logistics Report: Parceling Out Profits; Amazon’s Shipping Prime; Flipping Reverse Logistics
United Parcel Service Inc.’s close work with Amazon.com Inc. is paying off for the package carrier. The package carrier’s shipping volume and operating profit jumped sharply in the fourth quarter, the WSJ’s Paul Ziobro reports, as UPS gets cozier than ever with the largest online retailer in the U.S. while rival FedEx Corp. focuses on retailers competing with the e-commerce behemoth. UPS Chief Executive David Abney says Amazon now makes up 11.6% of the company’s annual revenue, but that other major retailers all are shipping more with the carrier. The company’s pricier air express services grew at a double-digit pace during 2019, including a 25.9% year-over-year gain in next-day air shipments in the fourth quarter. FedEx’s overnight air shipments have declined in three of the past four quarters and SJ Consulting says UPS now holds a bigger share of the next-day market than its Memphis-based rival.
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The financial results of European budget leader Ryanair suggest there is more bark than bite in complaints about unbundled air fares. “Just raise my ticket price instead of loading me up with extra charges, and I’ll pay.” Evidence from the airline industry suggests this is something people say but don’t do.
The trend of “unbundling”—dividing a product up into different payable segments—has picked up pace again among carriers. It was pioneered by the likes of Southwest and European budget leader Ryanair, RYAAY +5.93% but full-service brands like Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and British Airways eventually followed suit with “basic economy” fares. Now, Lufthansa and Emirates—which focuses more than most on the luxury market—are testing the waters of unbundling in business class.
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Freeze on Boeing 737 MAX forces Spirit AeroSystems to cut back
The biggest Boeing Co. BA -0.76% 737 MAX supplier said it is planning an initial 2,800 layoffs, the first announced job cuts since the grounding of a plane that is rippling through the broader aerospace industry.
Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc. SPR -1.59% makes the fuselage and engine parts for the MAX and had been producing enough for 52 jets a month before Boeing said it would freeze assembling the planes in January for a “temporary” time.
As the largest U.S. manufacturing exporter and one of the nation’s top private employers, Chicago-based Boeing plays a big role across the industry and in the U.S. economy.
Production of the MAX, which was Boeing’s best-selling plane, supported thousands of jobs across a network of over 600 suppliers and hundreds of other smaller firms in the global MAX supply chain.
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