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Raise your hands if you're utterly shocked at this report.
[looks around, doesn't see a lot of hands raised]
The CEO of Alaska made a couple of interesting statements, but the most interesting was that they are reconsidering an order placed with Boeing for 277 MAX10 aircraft, which do not exist yet. Alaska recently purchased Hawaiian Air, which operates Airbus jets, I would imagine that Alaska is considering diversifying their fleet with an additional influx of Airbus. While this would increase their maintenance costs, it would probably help them in the long run.
Alaska is having to cancel approximately 150 flights a day while its MAX9 fleet is grounded, the FAA has not yet announced what it will take to get those jets back in the air.
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/alaska-airlines-found-more-loose-bolts-boeing-737-max-9-ceo-says-rcna135316
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/01/alaska-airlines-says-it-found-many-loose-bolts-on-its-boeing-737-max-9s/
In other news today, a nose wheel on a Boeing 757 fell off. Now, I'm not picking on Boeing on this one because the 757 is a much older jet. The plane was sitting on the ground waiting to taxi, and for reasons unknown, one of the two nose wheels decided it wanted to roll down a hill. There were no injuries to passengers or crew, and no further damage to the aircraft. Everyone deplaned, were put on another flight, and all was well. Large aircraft have two nose wheels, losing one was certainly unusual, but didn't represent a huge danger to the craft.
But there's an interesting note in this article. The travel service Kayak has added a filter that, when you're scheduling air travel, you can EXCLUDE Boeing 737 MAX aircraft! Now that is both useful and a huge PR blow to Boeing.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/jan/24/delta-air-lines-plane-nose-wheel-falls-off
Boeing's problem is they fully embraced Wall Street culture when they merged with McDonnell-Douglas. They started chasing 'shareholder value' rather than its engineering/safety culture that it had before. Now it has the classic 'do more with less' which leads to corners being cut, and we can now clearly see what it's led to.
Airbus, on the other hand, even though it is making planes in the USA, is adhering to European safety standards and isn't seeing problems like this. While their planes aren't 100% perfect, they do something that I think is absolutely brilliant: the cockpit of each Airbus model is almost identical to every other! This minimizes pilot retraining and helps them get certified across types much more quickly. Boeing? Each one is its own beast, requiring its own multi-million dollar simulator and training program, and a lengthy training and certification program for pilots.
[looks around, doesn't see a lot of hands raised]
The CEO of Alaska made a couple of interesting statements, but the most interesting was that they are reconsidering an order placed with Boeing for 277 MAX10 aircraft, which do not exist yet. Alaska recently purchased Hawaiian Air, which operates Airbus jets, I would imagine that Alaska is considering diversifying their fleet with an additional influx of Airbus. While this would increase their maintenance costs, it would probably help them in the long run.
Alaska is having to cancel approximately 150 flights a day while its MAX9 fleet is grounded, the FAA has not yet announced what it will take to get those jets back in the air.
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/alaska-airlines-found-more-loose-bolts-boeing-737-max-9-ceo-says-rcna135316
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/01/alaska-airlines-says-it-found-many-loose-bolts-on-its-boeing-737-max-9s/
In other news today, a nose wheel on a Boeing 757 fell off. Now, I'm not picking on Boeing on this one because the 757 is a much older jet. The plane was sitting on the ground waiting to taxi, and for reasons unknown, one of the two nose wheels decided it wanted to roll down a hill. There were no injuries to passengers or crew, and no further damage to the aircraft. Everyone deplaned, were put on another flight, and all was well. Large aircraft have two nose wheels, losing one was certainly unusual, but didn't represent a huge danger to the craft.
But there's an interesting note in this article. The travel service Kayak has added a filter that, when you're scheduling air travel, you can EXCLUDE Boeing 737 MAX aircraft! Now that is both useful and a huge PR blow to Boeing.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/jan/24/delta-air-lines-plane-nose-wheel-falls-off
Boeing's problem is they fully embraced Wall Street culture when they merged with McDonnell-Douglas. They started chasing 'shareholder value' rather than its engineering/safety culture that it had before. Now it has the classic 'do more with less' which leads to corners being cut, and we can now clearly see what it's led to.
Airbus, on the other hand, even though it is making planes in the USA, is adhering to European safety standards and isn't seeing problems like this. While their planes aren't 100% perfect, they do something that I think is absolutely brilliant: the cockpit of each Airbus model is almost identical to every other! This minimizes pilot retraining and helps them get certified across types much more quickly. Boeing? Each one is its own beast, requiring its own multi-million dollar simulator and training program, and a lengthy training and certification program for pilots.
