United Airlines is pausing pilot hiring in the spring due to delays in aircraft delivery from Boeing.
The Chicago-based airline told staff Thursday that a hiring freeze would come into effect in May and June before partially resuming in July, according to an internal memo cited by multiple reports. The memo was sent to staff by United’s vice president of flight operations, Marc Champion, and vice president of flight operations planning and development, Kirk Limacher.
“We just won’t grow as fast as we thought we would in 2024 due to continued delays at Boeing,” the carrier told pilots.
The slowdown is just the latest example of the aftereffects of Boeing’s quality control and manufacturing issues, culminating in a near-disastrous incident in January. On Jan. 5, Alaska Airlines flight 1282 passengers — onboard a brand new Boeing 737 Max 9 — saw a door plug fly off mid-flight; those passengers have since filed multiple lawsuits against Boeing.
Since the incident, the Arlington, Virginia-based aerospace giant has languished under heightened scrutiny from the public and U.S. federal regulators.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board has released a preliminary report that noted that the Alaska plane involved in the incident had been delivered without four bolts needed to hold the door plug in place. The agency said earlier this week that it was “absurd” that Boeing had not yet provided documents requested several times in the wake of the Jan. 5 incident.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has launched a separate investigation and recently took Boeing to task for “multiple instances” of failing to meet safety quality standards. The regulator has also capped production of Boeing’s 737 Max at 38 jets per month.
After discovering a host of production flaws, the FAA continues to scrutinize operations at Boeing’s Washington state facility, along with the Kansas facility owned by Boeing’s supplier, Spirit AeroSystems.
United on Thursday said it no longer expects to receive the 80 Max 10 planes it had expected to receive in 2024 and removed those jets from internal plans. The carrier also cut its 2024 forecast for Max 8 delivery to 37 from 43 jets and expects to receive 15 fewer Max 9s.
“[T]hose aircraft aren’t even certified yet and it’s impossible to know when they will arrive,” Champion and Limacher wrote to staff, referring to the ordered Max 8 jets.
Meanwhile, on Monday, Texas-based American Airlines said it would order nearly 100 new planes from Boeing.