Boeing announced Wednesday that it has resumed production of the 737 MAX, a plane grounded for more than a year after two close accidents that killed 346 people. The return to service of this flagship aircraft is not, however, imminent because Boeing must still obtain the green light from the civil aviation authorities on the modifications made, in particular on the anti-stall software MCAS implicated in the two accidents.
A test flight supervised by the regulators is indeed necessary. Regulatory sources told Agence France-Presse (AFP) last week that this flight test would not take place before June, which is likely to shake up the schedule of Boeing, which hopes to return to the sky 737 MAX “mid-2020”.
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“The 737 program has started to assemble devices again at a slow pace, while implementing more than a dozen initiatives aimed at improving the safety of the working environment and the quality of products,” said on Wednesday. Seattle giant, in a statement.
Only aircraft to compete with Airbus on single aisles
The group had suspended production of the 737 MAX in January, in an attempt to ease strong tensions between its former CEO, Dennis Muilenburg, and civil aviation authorities and client airlines. Prior to this decision, Boeing had managed to produce some 400 737 MAX aircraft between the accident of a copy of Ethiopian Airlines on March 10, 2019 and December 31.
This aircraft represents more than two thirds of the order book and is central to the medium-term survival of the aircraft manufacturer, which, like all air transport, is suffering from the health crisis.
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Faced with the pandemic and to save money, the airlines want to use more single aisles on routes than hitherto carried by wide-body aircraft. The 737 MAX is the only product from Boeing that can compete with the A320NEO and the A220, two models of its European rival Airbus. In addition to the return to service, there are still uncertainties about the resumption of deliveries of the 737 MAX, suspended for a year.
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