Boeing is trying to regain the trust of airlines after an incident with a falling hatch plug.

Boeing is trying hard to convince its customers that the incident with Alaska Airlines’ 737 MAX 9 is an isolated incident. The company announced additional checks and will allow airline representatives to freely visit factories to ensure the reliability of the aircraft. But so far, both airlines and regulators are in no hurry to believe Boeing. And China, which has not officially announced the suspension of 737 MAX 9 flights in the country, according to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), has frozen deliveries of all modifications of the 737.

After a hatch plug in the middle of the cabin fell off on an Alaska Airlines plane on January 6 during a flight at an altitude of about 5 km, Boeing reports almost daily on new measures to improve the quality of its products and fight for the trust of both aviation regulators and and clients. On the evening of Monday, January 15, the company announced additional inspections of the 737 MAX 9 aircraft operated by five airlines, as well as at its own factories and the factories of Spirit AeroSystems, one of the concern’s key suppliers. In addition, Boeing will hold open houses for its customers: “We are opening our factories to 737 operators so they can conduct additional regulatory checks and observe first-hand our production and quality control procedures. Spirit will do the same, and we will learn from our customers’ experiences,” Boeing said in a statement.

All of the above measures will apply to the new 737 MAX 9 airliners, which the airline has yet to deliver to its customers. Separately, the company notes that the announced additional inspection measures are not related to the investigation of the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and its decision impose additional requirements on Boeing before the 737 MAX 9 aircraft are allowed back into service.

According to by order FAA on Jan. 6, 171 Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft will be required to remain grounded until airlines complete a thorough inspection of plugs on both sides of the cabin, door components and fasteners.

In the new order, the FAA required additional inspection data on 40 aircraft.

Inspections of the 737 MAX 9 already delivered to airlines are being delayed. The main operators of aircraft of this model in the United States are United Airlines and Alaska Airlines. And both continue to cancel flights on the 737 MAX 9.

Turkish airlines have also canceled flights on aircraft of this modification. And on January 7, the suspension of operation of the 737 MAX 9 until the causes of the incident were clarified announced and the European Aviation Safety Agency, noting that aircraft of this configuration are not used by any EU-registered airline.

China, one of the key markets for Boeing, unlike the US and the EU, did not announce the suspension of flights on the 737 MAX 9. Although, after two crashes of the 737 MAX 8 – in Indonesia in October 2018 and in Ethiopia in March 2019 – the Chinese authorities were the first in the world to ban their airlines from flying these planes.

However, as I found out The Wall Street Journal, instead of an official ban, the Chinese authorities froze the delivery of all new Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. According to the American company’s latest financial report, as of September, 85 737 MAX aircraft were awaiting delivery to China. Chinese airlines have expressed their readiness to begin accepting them in December, newspaper sources say. However, the resumption of supplies was then postponed until January. And on January 6, an incident occurred with an Alaska Airlines plane. Deliveries have now been postponed indefinitely. According to WSJ, China Southern Airlines was one of the Chinese carriers ready to begin taking delivery of Boeing aircraft in January. But now the airline plans to carry out additional safety checks on those planes, even though the 737 MAX 9 is not among them, sources say.

As the publication notes, the Chinese carrier was ready to resume imports of Boeing aircraft in the third quarter of last year. But then China Southern for a long time could not obtain permission from the Chinese authorities, the newspaper’s sources assure. The current decision to conduct additional checks was also dictated to airlines by the authorities, writes WSJ.

Kirill Sarkhanyants