Boeing could have to give up building the 737 MAX-10 if it fails to obtain its certification or a legal exemption by the end of the year, said its boss in an interview published Thursday by the specialized site Aviation Week.
After two fatal accidents of another version of the 737 MAX in 2018 and 2019, the American Congress had adopted a law at the end of 2020 imposing new standards in the pilot warning system in planes certified after the end of 2022. But if Boeing does not does not receive certification for the MAX-10 — or a waiver — by then, the manufacturer will have to modify the aircraft’s cockpit. The latter would then no longer operate like the other aircraft in the range (the 737 MAX -7, -8 and -9) and the pilots would have to have specific training.
In April, Dave Calhoun said he had a “good chance” of obtaining a waiver so that the MAX-10 could still be certified after the deadline. “Which doesn’t mean we’re going to get it; and if we don’t have it, it’s a problem,” he added.
Cancel the program?
Asked by Aviation Week about the possibility of Boeing canceling the program altogether, Mr. Calhoun acknowledged that the group “ends up having to face this question”. “After all we’ve been through, the debts we’ve had to accumulate, to be able to react to or envision a world without [MAX]-10 doesn’t sound that bad,” he added.
The group is still determined to have the device certified, however, assured Mr. Calhoun, considering that his case was in his eyes “sufficiently convincing”.
A Boeing spokeswoman confirmed to AFP the content of Mr. Calhoun’s remarks. The group, she said, is working with the regulator to provide it with all the necessary information and it “is committed to meeting its expectations and those of our customers to certify and deliver the 737-10”.
Boeing argues that it is in the interest of safety to have the same alert system in all MAXs, pilots used to flying on this range then not having to deal with new procedures.
If the manufacturer abandoned the MAX-10, it would lose the equivalent of a year of production, which is “not negligible”, estimates Michel Merluzeau, of the specialized firm AIR. But the problem “is not so much what Boeing could lose as what Airbus could gain” insofar as the European manufacturer has already conceded significant market share in certain segments in recent years, adds the expert.