Boeing Update, for Air Canada Pilots — News and Views

[Gilles Hudicourt]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremyboga ... f36b46247f

Boeing will pay a termination fee of $75 million to Embraer.

[FL-280]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremyboga ... f36b46247f

Boeing will pay a termination fee of $75 million to Embraer.

I would be surprised they “play nice” and pay 75 mil just like that with the cash crunch they are going through! M&A space in the last month has been brutal, ATD - Caltex, boeing - embraer, cine world - cineplex etc

[altiplano]

"The cheque is in the mail!"

[Raymond Hall]

From today's New York Post:

Boeing faces criminal probe of 737 MAX assembly line

Federal prosecutors are reportedly probing potentially dangerous missteps in the production of Boeing’s 737 MAX jet, adding to intense scrutiny of the troubled planemaker.

Both the US Department of Justice and the Federal Aviation Administration are examining various safety problems on the 737 MAX assembly line, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. The report follows Boeing’s February admission that it found tools, rags and other debris in the fuel tanks of more than 30 737 MAX planes.

The appearance of debris can stem from “quality-control lapses” like those that have been flagged for prosecutors, according to the Journal.
The criminal and civil inquiries reportedly build on a grand jury probe of the plane’s problematic flight control systems. That investigation has focused on what Boeing staff told the FAA about dangers with the plane before it was involved in two crashes that killed 346 people.

Both the Justice Department and the FAA have interviewed Ed Pierson, a former Boeing manager who raised red flags to the company and the feds about safety problems at Boeing’s factory in Renton, Washington, according to the paper.

Pierson has also told the House Transportation Committee about how Boeing’s push to speed up production allegedly led to “chaos” at the factory. The committee and the Justice Department were “the only two entities which responded with any sense of alacrity or urgency,” Pierson’s attorney, Eric Havian, told the Journal.

https://nypost.com/2020/04/28/boeing-fa ... bly-line/

[Raymond Hall]

From today's Washington Post:

Boeing plans to slash 10 percent of its workforce amid pandemic fallout, Max grounding
The aerospace giant was once a Wall Street darling. Twin forces continue to hammer the company’s bottom line.

Boeing said Wednesday it plans a 10 percent staff reduction — more than 14,000 jobs — as the continued grounding of its signature jet combined with a global halt in air travel sapped billions from its once-profitable commercial jet division.

The company, which reported a loss of $1.7 billion, employs more than 150,000 people globally and said it plans to cut approximately 10 percent of its total workforce. The report did not provide details on where those job cuts would come from or give a total number of jobs Boeing plans to cut, but the figure would equal more than 14,000 of its U.S. employees.

The 737 Max crisis amplified by the pandemic has cost Boeing, once a Wall Street favorite, a total of $5 billion, the company reported Wednesday.

...
Boeing reported a quarterly loss of $1.7 billion in the first quarter of 2020. It reported first-quarter revenue of $16.9 billion, 26 percent lower than the previous year. The decline of Boeing’s commercial airplane division has been swift and dramatic. The company delivered 66 percent fewer airplane deliveries in three first quarters of 2020 compared to the same period last year.
...
Boeing executives have estimated it will take two to three years for operations to return to normal.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business ... grounding/

[Raymond Hall]

Boeing CEO tells NBC that pandemic is ‘likely’ to put a major U.S. airline out of business

Boeing’s president and CEO, David Calhoun, acknowledged during an NBC News interview with “Today” host Savannah Guthrie that a major U.S. airline will “most likely” go out of business due to fallout from the coronavirus outbreak.

• In reply to a question from Guthrie, Calhoun said, “Something will happen when September comes around. Traffic levels will not be back to 100%. They won’t even be back to 25.”

• It might take until the end of the year for levels to approach 50%, “so there will definitely be adjustments that have to be made on the part of the airlines,” Calhoun said in an excerpt released today. The full interview is due to air Tuesday on “Today.”


https://www.geekwire.com/2020/boeing-ce ... business/A

[Raymond Hall]

Boeing Orders Slip Below 5,000 On MAX Cancellations

Boeing Co. BA -2.76% said Tuesday that its jetliner order book slipped below 5,000 for the first time in seven years as customers canceled more deals for 737 MAX jets.

The aerospace giant scrubbed another 108 MAX jets from its backlog and downgraded the status of deals for another 101 planes because of airlines’ weakening financial health in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. It didn’t lose any deals for larger wide-body aircraft.

Boeing’s report came as Chief Executive David Calhoun painted a dire near-term outlook for the airline industry, saying growth wouldn’t likely return to 2019 levels for three to five years.

Mr. Calhoun told NBC’s “Today” show that passenger traffic won’t be up to 25% of pre-pandemic levels by September, possibly approaching 50% by the end of the year.

He predicted the collapse of air-travel demand would “most likely” force a major U.S. carrier to go out of business.

…

Boeing has shed more than 500 orders so far this year following the biggest spike in cancellations for decades, trimming its backlog to 4,834 jets compared with 5,049 at the end of March. Airbus secured deals for nine jets last month and has outstanding orders for around 7,500 aircraft.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/boeing-ord ... ow_a_pos1

[Raymond Hall]

From today's New York Times:

F.A.A. Takes Step to Clearing Boeing 737 Max for Takeoff: Live Business Updates

Boeing’s beleaguered 737 Max could be in the air in a few months after the Federal Aviation Administration said on Tuesday that it was taking an important step forward in the complex process required to clear the plane for takeoff.

The regulator said that it was close to proposing design changes and crew procedures that would address its safety concerns. The public would have 45 days to comment on the proposed changes before the F.A.A. made its final decisions.

A number of hurdles remain before the agency lifts a March 2019 order that forced airlines to ground the plane after two fatal accidents in Indonesia and Ethiopia. But the F.A.A.’s decision to move ahead is nonetheless a big shot in the arm for Boeing, which has been devastated by the crisis surrounding the Max, one of its flagship jets, and the coronavirus pandemic.

The F.A.A. said it was still reviewing data collected during a series of critical test flights concluded early this month. It is also working on proposed pilot training requirements in coordination with regulators in Canada, Europe and Brazil.

Once those training requirements and the agency’s proposed design and crew changes are finished and additional documentation is reviewed and filed, the agency would rescind its grounding order.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/07/21 ... =Homepage

['97 Tercel]

Flying paying pax around by a Cdn operator? .. I'll place my chips on Feb.1

[rudder]

Flying paying pax around by a Cdn operator? .. I'll place my chips on Feb.1

Or later. Given the current air travel climate, there is no urgent need. WJ/SW are still being paid damages by Boeing. Not sure about AC.

I could see US recertification by Dec 01. Canada will not rubber stamp anything from the FAA so add another 60-90 days. EASA looks like they will have additional requirements above the FAA (3rd AOA source).

[Raymond Hall]

From today's Flight Global:

Boeing pushes to Q4 its expectation for resuming 737 Max deliveries

Boeing has pushed back its expectation of the 737 Max’s certification by one quarter, saying it now expects to resume 737 Max deliveries in the fourth quarter.

Previously, Boeing had expected certification would occur in time for it to resume 737 Max deliveries in the third quarter.

....
On 21 July, the FAA said it will soon issue a proposed rule that would lift the Max grounding. Once published, the FAA will accept public comments about the rule for 45 days.


https://www.flightglobal.com/airframers ... 36.article

[Raymond Hall]

From today's Washington Post:

FAA proposes $1.25 million fine for Boeing, alleging managers pressured employees to rush inspections

The Federal Aviation Administration has proposed fining Boeing $1.25 million, alleging that senior managers at the company’s plant in South Carolina pressured employees to rush aircraft inspections and in at least one instance, retaliated against a worker who reported the harassment.

In a pair of letters sent to the company Wednesday, the FAA cited several incidents in which Boeing appeared to violate rules designed to insulate employees who conduct safety inspections on behalf of the agency from harassment and “undue pressure” from those outside their specialized unit. In addition, Boeing allowed managers who were not part of the Organization Designation Authorization unit to oversee the work of employees who were, another violation of the company’s agreement with the FAA, the agency said.

ODA is a system under which specially designated Boeing employees are responsible for performing certain functions on behalf of the FAA. Under the arrangement, those employees work independently of Boeing and the FAA has rules in place to shield them from potential conflicts of interest.
…
In one instance, the FAA alleges that between September 2018 and May 2019, members of the ODA unit were subjected to “undue pressure of interference” from at least four Boeing managers, including three who were not part of the ODA unit. One ODA unit member was pressured to inspect a plane, even though the aircraft had outstanding issues and was not ready. In other instances, the managers pushed ODA employees to rush inspections and to report aircraft ready for inspection faster. The FAA also alleged that managers berated the performance of some ODA employees, and threatened to have them replaced by other employees or other ODA teams.
…
Boeing has 30 days to respond to the FAA’s preliminary investigation.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/tr ... Fstory-ans

[TCAS II]

Air Canada among airlines told to remove 787 Dreamliner jets from service after Boeing finds manufacturing flaw.

[mbav8r]

https://simpleflying.com/boeing-787-structural-worries/
“Boeing has instructed a number of airlines to immediately cease operating eight recently built Dreamliners amid concern over a manufacturing issue.
Overall, it seems that eight aircraft are affected, with all being immediately pulled from service. Affected airlines include United Airlines, Air Canada, and Singapore Airlines.”

There is no breakdown but a total of eight between three companies won’t affect anything, I’m sure there is a few replacement aircraft sitting around.
None the less, it will be cause for concern going forward. It seems quality control is particularly important with this type of material.

[bobcaygeon]

https://simpleflying.com/boeing-787-structural-worries/
“Boeing has instructed a number of airlines to immediately cease operating eight recently built Dreamliners amid concern over a manufacturing issue.
Overall, it seems that eight aircraft are affected, with all being immediately pulled from service. Affected airlines include United Airlines, Air Canada, and Singapore Airlines.”

There is no breakdown but a total of eight between three companies won’t affect anything, I’m sure there is a few replacement aircraft sitting around.
None the less, it will be cause for concern going forward. It seems quality control is particularly important with this type of material.

Personally I like seeing these type of actions. It means somebody's actually doing quality control and follow. THat they can narrow it down to just 8 aircraft out of 100's built actually is a little reassuring.

[Raymond Hall]

From today’s Washington Post:

Boeing 737 Max crashes were ‘horrific culmination’ of errors, investigators say

The chief project engineer for Boeing’s 737 Max jet told House investigators that he approved a critical design change to software on the plane even though he was unaware of key details about how it worked or of a previous warning from a test pilot that if the system malfunctioned, the results could be “catastrophic.”

The engineer’s acknowledgment is one of several revelations contained in a new report released Wednesday by investigators from the House Transportation Committee. The document details myriad gaps in oversight that allowed federal regulators to certify the plane was safe to fly even though officials at both Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration did not fully understand how it was designed.

…

The final committee report on the Max offers the clearest indication yet that Boeing — or the unit tasked with overseeing the certification process on the FAA’s behalf — could have caught flaws in the Max’s flight control system during the airplane’s design stage.

…

But it failed to act on concerns that were raised about the flawed Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), which was identified as a factor in both crashes. The Boeing employees were driven in part by what investigators concluded was pressure to get the new planes to customers quickly and without requiring their pilots to undergo extensive retraining — a goal symbolized by “countdown clocks” on the wall of a conference room, according to the report.

The House investigators concluded that the two crashes in less than five months “were the horrific culmination of a series of faulty technical assumptions by Boeing’s engineers, a lack of transparency on the part of Boeing’s management, and grossly insufficient oversight by the FAA.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/tr ... Fstory-ans

Final House Committee report on the Boeing 737 Max

https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/ ... l_manual_5

[RippleRock]

The Washington Post? Seriously Ray? I thought you're blood ran slightly blue.

There isn't a more left-leaning, democratic, far-left leaning liberal rag in the entire U.S.A.

[Raymond Hall]

The Washington Post? Seriously Ray? I thought you're blood ran slightly blue. There isn't a more left-leaning, democratic, far-left leaning liberal rag in the entire U.S.A.

The quotes are from the report. That is what is relevant to aviation. It just so happens that the Washington Post published its report ahead of other media, including the right-leading media that I follow as well.

[YYZSaabGuy]

The Washington Post? Seriously Ray? I thought you're blood ran slightly blue.

There isn't a more left-leaning, democratic, far-left leaning liberal rag in the entire U.S.A.

Oh, FFS, this crap again? Here's the coverage in that paragon of journalistic integrity, Fox News: https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/us- ... tification
I doubt you'll find a whole lot of difference from the Post's coverage.
Better?

[Rockie]

The Washington Post? Seriously Ray? I thought you're blood ran slightly blue.

There isn't a more left-leaning, democratic, far-left leaning liberal rag in the entire U.S.A.

Apropos of nothing.

[RippleRock]

The Washington Post? Seriously Ray? I thought you're blood ran slightly blue.

There isn't a more left-leaning, democratic, far-left leaning liberal rag in the entire U.S.A.

Apropos of nothing.

A comment concerning nothing, concerning a comment you view as concerning nothing. Slow posting night Rockie?

One can wonder why anyone of "credibility" would post an editorial from a paper who actively promotes "left extremism". There are many other sources.

[Rockie]

You don’t know the difference between facts and opinion. How could you?

What facts in the WP news story do you dispute? Cite actual evidence to support your case.

[Raymond Hall]

One can wonder why anyone of "credibility" would post an editorial from a paper who actively promotes "left extremism". There are many other sources.

Since when was political correctness, according to your standard of publications, a precondition to posting aviation-related material on an aviation directed site? Would you rather I have obtained the quote from Stormer?

[Raymond Hall]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/18/busi ... e=Homepage

The Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday cleared the way for Boeing’s 737 Max to resume flying, 20 months after it was grounded following two fatal crashes blamed on faulty software and a host of company and government failures.
The decision ends a devastating saga for Boeing, which had predicted billions of dollars in losses stemming from the Max crisis even before the coronavirus pandemic dealt a ruinous blow to global aviation. The agency’s chief, Stephen Dickson, signed an order Wednesday formally lifting the grounding.

“The path that led us to this point was long and grueling, but we said from the start that we would take the time necessary to get this right,” he said in a video message. “I am 100 percent comfortable with my family flying on it.”

[teacher]

Not in Canada.....

https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/ottawa- ... -1.5194016