MAX oppdatering - Curt Lewis

FAA panel reviewing 737 MAX certification will take additional time

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Aviation Administration said on Friday a blue-ribbon panel of experts around the world will need a few more weeks to finish its review into the Boeing 737 MAX certification.


FILE PHOTO: Unpainted Boeing 737 MAX aircraft are seen parked in an aerial photo at Renton Municipal Airport near the Boeing Renton facility in Renton, Washington, U.S. July 1, 2019. REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson

The team, which is reviewing the approval of the now grounded jet involved in two fatal crashes since October, is taking additional time to finish documenting its work and the FAA said it expects its recommendations in the coming weeks.

Boeing Co (BA.N) has said it hopes to receive regulatory approval for updated flight control software at the center of both crashes in October, but it could take a month or two for airlines to train pilots on the new software and prepare the jets for commercial flight after sitting idle for months.

The Joint Authorities Technical Review is chaired by former National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Christopher Hart, and the FAA said its focus on the certification of the aircraft "is separate from the ongoing efforts to safely return the aircraft to flight."

In September the NTSB plans to outline airplane design certification procedures, the head of the agency, Robert Sumwalt, told Congress in July.

Sumwalt said in March that the agency was "examining the U.S. design certification process to ensure any deficiencies are captured and addressed" after two fatal Boeing 737 MAX crashes.

United Airlines said on Friday it was extending the cancellation of Boeing 737 MAX flights by another month until Dec. 19.

Since the twin disasters, a host of government agencies and outside experts have been investigating how the FAA certifies new aircraft and its longstanding practice of delegating certification tasks to airplane manufacturers - including federal prosecutors, the Department of Transportation's inspector general, Congress and several blue-ribbon panels.

Deputy FAA Administrator Dan Elwell told Congress in March the agency would have to spend $1.8 billion and hire 10,000 new employees to handle all aircraft certification internally.

Michael Perrone, who heads the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union, said at a House hearing in July that external entities designated by the FAA "are now performing more than 90 percent of FAA's certification activities despite serious concerns that oversight is lacking."

He added this "creates a concerning dynamic whereby designees who are paid by the aircraft manufacturers, airlines, or repair stations are simultaneously overseeing for the FAA."

American joins United in extending Boeing 737 Max cancellations until December

• American doesn't plan to fly its Boeing 737 Max planes until Dec. 3 and expects 140 flight cancellations a day in the month before.
• The move follows a similar schedule change by United.
• The Boeing 737 Max planes have been grounded since mid-March after two fatal crashes that killed 346 people.

American Airlines Boeing 737 Max planes sit parked outside of a maintenance hangar at Tulsa International Airport (TUL) in Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S., on Tuesday, May 14, 2019.
Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty Images

American Airlines is pulling the Boeing 737 Max from its schedules until early December, a month later than it previously expected, as the grounding of the troubled planes following two fatal crashes continues, sparking flight cancellations over Thanksgiving.

The planes have been grounded since mid-March when regulators ordered airlines to stop flying passengers with them after two fatal crashes within five months of one another.

American expects to cancel about 140 flights a day in November through Dec. 3, higher than the 115 it expects in the two months leading up to Nov. 3, the date it previously expected the planes to return to its schedules. Cancellations due to the Max grounding, now in its sixth month, have been rising because airlines had expected to have additional planes delivered. American had 24 of the 737 Max jets in its fleet at the time of the grounding in March and was supposed to have 40 by the end of this year.

Boeing suspended deliveries of new Max planes after the second crash but is still producing them, albeit at a slower rate. The manufacturer expects the planes to return to service in the fourth quarter but has warned it could suspend production altogether if there are more delays.

The manufacturer has developed a software fix for the jets after crash investigators implicated a flight control system in both air disasters, but it hasn't yet been officially submitted and approved by regulators.

Regulators haven't said when they expect to clear the planes to fly again. Even after they sign off, airline executives have said it will take more than a month for them to make Boeing's software changes and to train their pilots.

American's decision to extend cancellations because of the Max, announced Sunday, follows a similar step by United Airlines, which on Friday said it would take the planes out of its schedule until Dec. 19. The latest changes mean the two airlines don't expect to have the planes flying for the busy Thanksgiving holiday but that they would return in time for the Christmas travel period.

Airlines that bought the jets have repeatedly pushed back the date when they expect to fly the planes again and have canceled flights months in advance, an effort to avoid travel disruptions for travelers and crews closer to the date of their flights. That has meant thousands of cancelled of flights during the busy summer travel season through most of the fall. The absence of the Max has driven up these airlines' costs and dented profits.

Southwest Airlines, the largest 737 Max customer in the U.S., removed the planes from its schedules until early January, and has said it would shrink this year, instead of expanding capacity as planned because it doesn't have access to its Max planes.

American noted that some flights it intended to operate with a 737 Max may not be canceled because it will swap out that plane for other aircraft. That also means some flights originally scheduled with other aircraft may be cancelled as the carrier reassigns those planes for high-demand routes.

The fallout from the Max grounding comes as the carrier is dealing with other operational challenges. American has been feuding with its mechanics union, a dispute the airline says has caused hundreds of cancellations and long delays. Last month, Kerry Philipovitch, American's senior vice president of customer experience, told reporters at an industry conference that the airline's customer service team has been calling travelers who experienced multiple travel disruptions on American to apologize and in some cases offer frequent flyer miles as compensation.

American said Sunday that it plans to contact travelers whose flights are canceled because of the new schedule changes and that those customers can rebook or request a full refund.