MAX - Mer stoff - MAX navnet bør droppes - Boeing kunder går til Airbus - Curt Lewis

Boeing addresses new 737 MAX software issue that could keep plane grounded longer FILE PHOTO: A Boeing 737 Max aircraft is seen parked in a storage area at the company's production facility in Renton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Boeing Co said on Friday it is addressing a new software issue discovered in Iowa last weekend during a technical review of the proposed update to the grounded Boeing 737 MAX, a development that could further delay the plane's return to service. "We are making necessary updates," Boeing said in a statement. Officials at the planemaker said the issue relates to a software power-up monitoring function that verifies some system monitors are operating correctly. One of the monitors was not being initiated correctly, officials said. The monitor check is prompted by a software command at airplane or system power up, and will set the appropriate indication if maintenance is required, company officials added. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) did not immediately comment. ABC News reported the issue early Friday. Boeing is halting production of the 737 MAX this month following the grounding in March of its best-selling plane after two fatal crashes in five months killed 346 people. U.S. regulators are waiting for an update from Boeing on how they will resolve the issue. A U.S. official briefed on the matter said Friday the FAA is now unlikely to approve the plane's return until March but it could take until April. This week, American Airlines Group Inc and Southwest Airlines Co both said they would extend cancellations of MAX flights until early June. Also this month, the FAA and Boeing said they were reviewing a wiring issue that could potentially cause a short circuit on the grounded 737 MAX. Officials said the review is looking at whether two bundles of wiring are too close together, which could lead to a short circuit and potentially result in a crash if pilots did not respond appropriately. U.S. and European aviation safety regulators met with Boeing in an effort to complete a 737 MAX software documentation audit that was begun in November. Documentation requirements are central to certification for increasingly complex aircraft software, and can become a source of delays. https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/boeing-says-addressing-737-max-185755306.html Back to Top

Boeing customer Air Lease says 'damaged' MAX brand should be dropped Employees walk near a Boeing 737 Max aircraft at the Renton Municipal Airport in Renton DUBLIN (Reuters) - The chairman of major aircraft leasing firm Air Lease , which has 150 of Boeing's grounded 737 MAX jet on order, on Monday called on the U.S. manufacturer to drop the "damaged" MAX brand to avoid it undermining the plane's value. The comments by Steven Udvar-Hazy, one of the founders of the airplane leasing industry which finances around half of the world's passenger fleet, echoes a call by U.S. President Donald Trump in April last year to "rebrand" its 737 MAX jetliner. Boeing said last June it had no plans to change the name of the jet. "We've asked Boeing to get rid of that word MAX," Udvar-Hazy told the Airline Economics aviation finance conference in Dublin. "I think that word MAX should go down in the history books as a bad name for an aircraft." "The MAX brand is damaged and there is really no reason for it," he added. Boeing is halting production of the 737 MAX this month following the grounding in March of its best-selling plane after two fatal crashes in five months killed 346 people. A U.S. official briefed on the matter on Friday said U.S. regulator the Federal Aviation Administration is now unlikely to approve the plane's return until March, and that it could take until April. American Airlines Group Inc and Southwest Airlines Co have both said they would extend cancellations of MAX flights until early June. Asked if the MAX brand might damage the value of the jet or its future lease rates, Udvar-Hazy said it was not yet clear. Airlines are still trying to gauge passengers' reluctance to fly on the MAX, he said, and how long this will last. "Will it be two months, will it be six months, will it be different in different parts of the world?" "Will people in the U.S. after a few months forget about the accidents and think 'oh its just another 737', or are there going to be parts of the world where people are going to be more superstitious and it will take longer for them to erase that stigma?" Udvar-Hazy said he was hopeful the plane would be cleared by regulators in both Europe and the United States within 90 days, but added that "it almost feels like every week there are new developments that cause us to be concerned" about the timing. Air Lease has 42 MAX aircraft currently grounded. Udvar-Hazy said he did not expect the MAX to flood the market and push down lease rates once it is cleared to fly, as Boeing is unlikely to be able to deliver more than 50-60 jets per month including new production. Amid MAX Grounding, Loyal Boeing Customer Defects To Airbus: Xiamen Airlines To Lease A321neos As much as airframers Airbus and Boeing chase large volume aircraft deals, they also have a special interest in loyal airlines buying only from one manufacturer. Such had been China's Xiamen Airlines. When it wanted to expand beyond its narrowbody Boeing 737 and 757 fleet, it turned to Boeing for 787 Dreamliners, one of the widebody aircraft typically more profitable for airframers to build. Now with almost 170 Boeing aircraft, Xiamen plans to defect by taking the Airbus A321neo. Xiamen issued a RFP to lease 10 A321neos from 2021-2023. Xiamen previously planned for Boeing's 737 MAX to be its future fleet, ordering 30 for delivery between 2019-2022. Xiamen has given no indication it will change that order, but the A321neo aircraft end Boeing's domination and make it more likely for additional Airbus aircraft - including widebodies - to join Xiamen's fleet. Like other medium-sized airlines using only Boeing aircraft, Xiamen has been particularly affected by the MAX grounding. It has received 10 MAX aircraft, about 6% of its narrowbody fleet, and has a further 14 in the US awaiting delivery, according to photos and aircraft logs. Early in the MAX grounding, Xiamen foresaw the impact and considered bringing back its 757s, which it retired a few months prior, but determined that to be too costly. Boeing's MAX grounding does not single-handedly push Xiamen in the direction of Airbus. But it does nudge Xiamen as part of a wider transition at China's mid-sized airlines, which also includes all-Airbus Sichuan Airlines that is comparable in size to Xiamen. They are neither domestic-wide airlines, which have cost benefits from scale and yield premiums from their proliferation, but nor are they from the crop of newer entrant airlines that are not saddled with legacy costs. Some of the newer airlines like Juneyao are full-service while others like Spring are low-cost, but all have underlying efficiency and want to exploit that by expanding. Xiamen and other state-owned airlines cannot restructure, so the answer is to grow (slots permitting) and let expansion spread out fixed costs. Xiamen started as a regional airline, surpassed 100 aircraft in 2013, and would have ended 2019 with over 170 aircraft if not for the MAX grounding. It expects to have 560 aircraft by 2035. Even if the 560 figure proves too ambitious, such growth means Xiamen in the domestic market is starting to become a country-wide network airline. It also has to consider how to feed the long-haul flights it is pressured to operate. Part of its future means evaluating having two aircraft suppliers to play them off in pricing, as do the larger Chinese airlines, including China Southern, which is Xiamen's largest shareholder. China Southern already splits its fleet between Airbus and Boeing, and was the only Chinese airline to order the A380. Xiamen could piggyback on China Southern's A320 family infrastructure - training, spare parts - before Xiamen builds up its own capabilities if it proceeds with an Airbus fleet larger than its initial 10 A321neo aircraft. There were media reports in 2018 of Xiamen considering the A321neo, but some considered that negotiating leverage as US-China trade relations weakened. Those reports were about the neo LR, and Xiamen's RFP did not specify what type of A321neo it is interested in. The longer-range neo would help Xiamen open further-flung markets without the large capacity of a widebody. Boeing does not have a direct competitor to the A321neo LR and, to the frustration of airlines, potential development is on hold as Boeing works through the MAX grounding. United Airlines, which had been seen as leaning towards Boeing, last month ordered an even longer-range A321 variant, the XLR. Xiamen's 737 NG fleet only goes up to the -800, equivalent to the A320. Its order for 30 MAX aircraft comprises 20 MAX 8s, the -800's successor, and 10 MAX 10s, which Boeing developed to better compete with the A321neo family. China's Okay Airways also ordered the MAX 10, but every other Chinese airline so far has only ordered the MAX 8 variant. It cannot be reassuring for Boeing that in a market the size of China, one of only two customers for its larger MAX is willing to try Airbus.