Air Canada has removed the Boeing 737 Max from its operating schedule until June 30 following the manufacturer’s latest guidance about regulatory approval for the plane to fly again. WestJet announced Tuesday that it will remove the plane from its schedule until June 24.
Boeing advised customers and suppliers that it estimates that the plane will remain grounded until mid-year.
Air Canada says the decision is based on operational considerations and is meant to provide customers with certainty around planning and booking travel.
Air Canada has a fleet of 24 Boeing 737 Max aircraft, which it and other global carriers grounded last March following two fatal crashes of the aircraft.
Air Canada had earlier opted to push back the return of the aircraft until March 31.
Meanwhile in Seattle…
Boeing’s new CEO said Wednesday that production of the 737 Max will resume this spring, months before the company expects federal regulators to certify the grounded plane to fly again.
David Calhoun also said he believes passengers will fly on the Max when federal regulators say it is safe and they see airline pilots getting on the plane.
Calhoun dismissed the idea that Boeing’s bestselling jet might never fly again or that the company should change the plane’s name.
“I’m all in on it, the company is all in on it, and I believe the FAA is all in on it,” he said, referring to the Federal Aviation Administration, which is reviewing changes that Boeing is making to the Max after two crashes that killed 346 people.”
Calhoun, who replaced fired CEO Dennis Muilenburg this month, spoke to reporters after meeting with Boeing employees in Seattle.
He defended the company’s culture and denied that it had placed profit above safety. He did not defend internal Boeing communications in which employees involved in developing the Max ridiculed the plane and regulators and tried to convince airlines not to use flight simulators to train pilots for the Max.
“It is totally appalling,” he said of the messages.
The company temporarily shut down the Max assembly line near Seattle in the last few days. Calhoun told reporters that production will resume “a few months before’” June. Pressed on the timing, he suggested that the assembly line could reopen in about two months.
Boeing has reassigned its 3,000 employees who work on Max assembly, and he repeated Wednesday that they will not be laid off or furloughed. However, some suppliers have announced layoffs. Spirit AeroSystems, which makes fuselages for the Max, has said it will cut 2,800 jobs.
Economic impact on the US
Boeing is a huge exporter, and the pause in production of its bestselling plane is expected to ripple through the nation’s economy.
Analysts at IHS Markit said Wednesday that a shutdown through June would shave one-tenth of a percentage point off US economic growth, and the damage will double if the Max is shuttered through December. IHS said the estimates didn’t account for the indirect effects of lower employment, income and spending related to the Max.
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin made an even more dire prediction. He said the Max’s travails would reduce US gross domestic product by one-half a percentage point.