From the crashes of the 737 MAX to the misadventures of its jumbo jets, Boeing is struggling to emerge from the most serious crisis in its history. Present at the Farnborough Air Show (United Kingdom) that begins on Monday, the American giant wants to revive turning the page on the pandemic. This fair is the most important in the sector with that of Le Bourget, near Paris. This biannual event had to be canceled in 2020 due to the health crisis.
Pending announcements of new commercial orders, Boeing will also introduce several aircraft, including the MAX 10, the latest and largest version of its flagship model, during the British event. The group intends to demonstrate that the stumbling blocks of its media radio have been left behind. This was grounded for 20 months, from March 2019 to December 2020, following two fatal crashes of another MAX variant.
Lose MAX 10
Since the return to the skies of the MAX, Boeing has tried to make amends with US authorities and regulators, partially acknowledging its responsibility in the accidents and paying several billion dollars to settle the lawsuits.
The fate of the MAX 10 is also in the hands of the US Congress, which must decide before the end of December whether or not to grant a waiver to a law that imposes new standards for the crew alert system.
Boeing boss Dave Calhoun hinted in a recent interview with Aviation Week that the company could scrap the MAX 10 if the model doesn’t get a waiver or isn’t certified by the end of the year.
The lack of certification would imply additional training for pilots, making the model more expensive for companies, which could move away from it.
Vanishing Health
In the wide-body market, most deliveries of the 787 Dreamliner have been frozen since manufacturing defects were discovered in the summer of 2020. As for the future version of the 777, the 777X, its certification has been postponed again, to 2025, to comply with regulations. requirements
With 51 aircraft delivered in June (including 43 MAXs), Boeing still had its best month since March 2019.
Still not recovered from the effects of the pandemic and their own torments, the group is in a delicate state of health. It accumulated loads in the first quarter (war in Ukraine, renegotiation of the Air Force One presidential plane contract, etc.) and its debt amounted to almost 58,000 million dollars at the end of March.
This is, according to the expert, the case of the military tanker aircraft KC-46 or the MQ-25, future tanker drone of the US Navy.
space ambitions
Boeing also has ambitions in the conquest of space. Its Starliner capsule, which will transport NASA astronauts to the International Space Station, passed a key test at the end of May after many adventures, but it faces Starlink, Elon Musk’s company.
The question remains of the launch of a new model to fill the market segment between the MAX and the 787 and compete with the Airbus A321, particularly its very long-range version.
Mr. Calhoun buried the NMA (New Midsize Aircraft) project mentioned for years in early 2020, but many observers believe Boeing could relaunch it or risk ceding too much market share to its European competitor.
Source: BFM TV
