An union representing 15,000 American Airlines pilots on Wednesday said that it strongly opposes an effort in the US Congress to extend an exemption from modern cockpit alerting requirements for the Boeing Co’s 737 MAX 7 and 737 MAX 10.
Boeing faces a December deadline to win approval from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for the 737 MAX 7 and 737 MAX 10 variants, or it must meet new modern cockpit alerting requirements that could significantly delay the plane’s entry into service.
“Boeing needs to proceed with installing modern crew alerting systems on these aircraft to mitigate pilot startle-effect and confusion during complex, compound system malfunctions,” Allied Pilots Association president Edward Sicher said.
Photo: Bloomberg
The FAA declined to comment.
The US planemaker did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but previously said that it is safer to have one common cockpit alerting system for all versions of the 737.
NO QUICK APPROVAL
Photo: AFP / BOEING / Jim ANDERSON
Boeing does not anticipate winning regulatory approval for its 737 MAX 10 before the summer next year, Reuters reported on Monday, citing an FAA letter to Congress.
Last week, US Senator Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the US Senate Commerce Committee, proposed extending the deadline for Boeing to win approval for the two new variants until September 2024, saying that he hoped to attach the proposal to an annual defense bill.
The alerting requirements were adopted as part of a certification reform bill passed after two fatal 737 MAX crashes killed 346 people and led to the best-selling plane’s 20-month grounding.
Relatives of many of those killed in the MAX crashes also oppose giving Boeing an extension.
They in July wrote a letter opposing the extension, saying Boeing had resorted “to bullying Congress.”
Meanwhile, Boeing last month missed out on a 40-plane deal, after China in July ordered nearly 300 Airbus aircraft worth about US$37 billion at sticker prices.
The misses reinforce how simmering US-Sino political tensions continue to complicate the dealmaking landscape for Boeing, which is also still waiting for its 737 MAX to fly again in China.
The agreement with Airbus for 292 aircraft from China’s big three state-owned carriers was one of the country’s largest-ever orders.
The subsequent US$4.8 billion deal in September was to supply 40 jetliners to Xiamen Airlines Co (廈門航空), a China Southern Airlines Co (中國南方航空) unit that previously only operated Boeing planes.
“Boeing’s exclusion from the Chinese market is poised to extend amid a worsening US-China relationship, lengthening the company’s recovery timeline and crimping its outlook,” Bloomberg Intelligence analysts George Ferguson and Juan Chamorro wrote in a note on Wednesday last week.
A longer-term rift threatens to put Boeing well behind Airbus, with deliveries already falling to a “negligible level” since 2020, Bloomberg Intelligence said, adding that a lack of sales in China would curb build rates and strain the US manufacturer’s supply chain.
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