Boeing 737 MAX Cleared to Fly Again,

but Covid-19 Has Sapped Demand

FAA’s order following two fatal crashes removes a major obstacle as pandemic creates
fresh problems

A Boeing 737 MAX jet at the company's Renton, Wash., production facility last week.
PHOTO: DAVID RYDER/GETTY IMAGES

By 
Andrew Tangel
 and 
Andy Pasztor
Updated Nov. 18, 2020 5:25 pm ET
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The U.S. on Wednesday approved Boeing Co. BA   0.35%   ’s 737 MAX jets for passenger flights
again after dual crashes took 346 lives, issuing a set of long-anticipated safety directives and notices
to airlines globally that will help resolve the plane maker’s biggest pre-pandemic crisis.
The Federal Aviation Administration’s official order to release the MAX, grounded since March
2019, came as the Chicago aerospace giant grapples with a host of new problems in the midst of the
continuing health crisis.
The FAA’s mandate allows Boeing to resume delivering the jets to airlines and lets them carry
passengers, pending completion of certain mandatory fixes and additional pilot training
requirements spelled out in related documents also released by the agency. U.S. carriers said
Wednesday that they would broadly reintroduce the MAX into their schedules starting early next
year, while FAA chief Steve Dickson said he expected approvals from some foreign regulators
within days.

But the pandemic has sapped demand for air travel, prompting airlines and aircraft-leasing firms
to cancel about 10% of Boeing’s outstanding MAX orders this year. Boeing has said it believes
hundreds more of its remaining 4,102 orders could be in jeopardy because of the financial health of
some customers.
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The FAA, as expected, also set new requirements that FAA specialists—rather than Boeing officials
—will need to sign off on the condition of each MAX before the manufacturer hands them over to
customers.

The agency said that approval of the safety fixes, which include new hardware and software changes
affecting flight-control systems, reflects “an unprecedented level of collaborative and independent
reviews by aviation authorities around the world.”

Since authorities in each country separately have to approve putting planes back in service, there is
bound to be some lag between the FAA’s move and those decisions. Regulators in Europe have
already signaled they expect to act around the end of the year. Canadian regulators on Wednesday
said they expect to act “very soon,” adding that safety experts are continuing their independent
assessment and expect to mandate some differences in training and emergency procedures.

Mr. Dickson said Wednesday the changes would preclude a repeat of similar accidents and make the
MAX, which he personally piloted in a test flight, the most scrutinized jetliner in history. “I can tell
you that my family and your family will be safe on this aircraft,” he said.

The Boeing 737 MAX returns to flight

VIEW INTERACTIVE

MERRILL SHERMAN

Families of many of the crash victims have publicly criticized the FAA for not demanding more
design changes, and they have also complained that U.S. regulators and air-accident investigators
are blocking the public release of internal Boeing documents detailing lapses during initial vetting
of the jet’s safety. Responding to questions, the FAA chief opened the door to additional safeguards.
“We will continue to look for opportunities to put safety enhancements in,” Mr. Dickson said.

Boeing said the FAA’s approval confirmed its fixes to the MAX will make the airplane safe to fly
again. Chief Executive David Calhoun said the company won’t forget the lives lost in the accidents.

“These events and the lessons we have learned as a result have reshaped our company and further
focused our attention on our core values of safety, quality and integrity,” he said in an internal
memo Wednesday.

MORE

 Heard on the Street: Boeing Must Emerge Smarter

Boeing shares fell 3.2% to $203.30 in trading Wednesday.

With Boeing’s problem shifting from an inability to meet demand to an oversupply, the MAX crisis
has become a double whammy. The manufacturer has estimated the crashes and the aftermath had
cost it about $20 billion, which includes financial hits related to halting production earlier this year.
Engineering mistakes and management lapses provoked a tangle of civil litigation, a criminal
investigation and congressional scrutiny.
Accident investigators have said misfires of an automated flight-control system, called MCAS, led
to the crashes of Indonesia’s Lion Air in October 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines in March 2019, when
regulators grounded the MAX world-wide. Boeing has spent the past two years hammering out fixes
to the system, revising pilot training and making related changes while responding to demands from
world regulators.
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Meanwhile, the plane maker has said it is working to restore credibility with the public. In planning
for the MAX’s return, airlines have said they considered potential passenger reaction, conducting
their own surveys and laying out plans to rebook any nervous travelers on different aircraft.

The MAX debacle prompted consternation among some of the company’s biggest customers,
sparked a boardroom and management shake-up inside Boeing and pushed the plane maker to
revamp internal engineering and safety-reporting procedures.

This year, Boeing customers have either walked away from jets whose delivery has been delayed
more than a year, as their contracts typically allow them to do without penalty, or put off taking the
aircraft to future years when, according to industry predictions, air travel recovers toward pre-
pandemic levels.

Boeing 737 MAX order changes, 2020Source: the company

CancellationsOrders in jeopardy2020Oct.050100150200250300
Airlines around the world have been struggling financially throughout the pandemic, in many cases
putting the brakes on long-planned airplane purchases as they lay off thousands of employees, save
cash and restructure debts. Some have stopped flying altogether, further expanding the glut of
planes.
Executives at Boeing have said they expect to deliver about half of its inventory of about 450 built
MAXs by the end of next year, and the majority of those remaining the following year. While some
of the finished planes may need new buyers, the executives have suggested many of the aircraft will
likely wind up at their originally intended operators, who have deferred deliveries to 2022 or later.

How quickly Boeing can move its finished MAX jets will determine how many new aircraft it will
eventually make. That production rate will have implications for how many workers it needs and the
ability to generate cash in coming years.

“We’re determined not to create a bigger problem than we started with, and so that production rate
will stay low until the movement of those airplanes,” Mr. Calhoun told analysts in late October.

Total gross aircraft ordersSource: the companies*Includes the A319neo and A321neoNote: 2020
is through Oct. 31
Boeing 737 MAXAirbus A320neo family*2011'12'13'14'15'16'17'18'19'20025050075010001250

Aircraft deliveriesSource: the companiesNote: 2020 is through Oct. 31

00Boeing 737 MAXAirbus A320neo family2016'17'18'19'200100200300400500600

Mr. Calhoun predicted a Covid-19 vaccine—if, as U.S. health officials suggest, it is available
widely by the middle of next year—could help turn around Boeing’s crises, leading to a “run on the
bank” for narrow-body airplanes. “It’s going to be the response when the recovery really does
come,” he said last month.

The accidents will have long-term fallout. They have led to changes in airplane-design principles
and created friction between U.S. and international aviation regulators. Once the MAX fleet returns
to service, Canadian and European regulators are expected to follow through with demands to
incorporate additional safeguards on both existing and future versions.

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

Do you think Boeing and the FAA have adequately addressed the issues with the 737 MAX and
the training required of pilots? Why or why not? Join the conversation below.

Now that the FAA has published its orders, Boeing, the FAA and airlines still have to complete a
host of technical and logistical tasks to bring back jets stored for nearly two years.

MAX jets aren’t expected to be in widespread use in the U.S. until 2021. Pilots must undergo
additional mandatory training, including a roughly two-hour session in flight simulators that aims to
roughly replicate the accident scenarios. It is likely to take foreign regulators and airlines weeks or
months longer, according to government and airlines officials.

U.S. operators of the MAX said Wednesday that they planned to reintroduce the aircraft in coming
months. American Airlines Group Inc. said it would start flying the MAX twice a day—one round-
trip between Miami and New York City—starting Dec. 29 and gradually increase its flights. United
Airlines Holdings Inc. said it would resume flying the MAX in the first quarter. Southwest
Airlines Co. , which operates an all-737 fleet, said it wouldn’t reintroduce the plane until April at
the earliest so that it could train all its pilots.
Write to Andrew Tangel at Andrew.Tangel@wsj.com and Andy Pasztor at andy.pasztor@wsj.com
Copyright ©2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Appeared in the November 19, 2020, print edition as 'FAA Clears Boeing 737 MAX To Fly After Deadly Crashes.'