The US Federal Aviation Administration said grounded Boeing 737 Max 9 airplanes will be cleared to return to the skies after it does an inspection and maintenance check.
“However, let me be clear: This won’t be back to business as usual for Boeing,” said FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker in the announcement Wednesday (Jan. 24). “We will not agree to any request from Boeing for an expansion in production or approve additional production lines for the 737 MAX until we are satisfied that the quality control issues uncovered during this process are resolved.”
Of the 171 grounded Boeing planes, United owns 79 and Alaska Airlines has 65. The planes were ordered to stay out of the air after a door plug blew off of a 737 Max 9 during an Alaska Airlines flight on Jan. 5, forcing the two airlines to cancel hundreds of flights. More trouble came with the FAA said another Boeing model could be affected by a similar issue to the one plaguing the 737 Max 9’s.
Fortunately, it seems the rough patch will soon be over. Alaska Airlines said that, while it will take a $150 million hit from the groundings, the airline will be able to put its first 737 Max’s back in service on Jan. 26. United reportedly plans to have its planes in the air as soon as Jan. 28, a couple days before the company initially expected.
What this means for airlines
While the FAA’s announcement is good news for the airlines’ current capacity, it doesn’t do much to solve production holdups that are expected from Boeing. The FAA said Boeing won’t be able to expand production lines for its 737 Max planes anytime soon.
That means airlines planning to order Boeing’s latest 737 model, the Max 10, likely won’t get their planes on time, if at all. This will impact operators’ growth capacity as they scramble to look for alternatives. United, for example, had ordered 31 Max 9s for this year and planned to buy 277 Max 10s over the next decade.