Tag Archives for boeing.
Starting July 20, Boeing will again issue final airworthiness certificates for newly built 737 MAX and 787 aircraft—authority the FAA reserved after fatal crashes and production failures. The agency says eight months of alternating inspections produced comparable quality findings, while federal audits and production oversight will continue.
A Chicago jury just awarded $49.5 million to the family of one Ethiopian 737 MAX crash victim, the largest civil verdict yet from the disaster. Boeing had already admitted liability, so the trial was only about money — and the size of the award now gives the remaining families a much higher benchmark.
The people killed in the Boeing 737 MAX crashes were the real victims. But after years of litigation, one of the strongest cases still moving forward is a shareholder fraud suit — raising the uncomfortable possibility that the biggest courtroom payday from the disaster could go not to passengers or their families, but to investors who say Boeing misled the market.
For decades, the FAA relied on independent “fixers” — outside engineers who kept aircraft approvals moving when bureaucracy stalled. Now it’s dismantling that system, embracing the Boeing model of corporate self-oversight that once drew intense scrutiny.
Boeing is quietly working on a successor to the troubled 737 MAX, holding early talks with Rolls-Royce and sketching a fresh cockpit design. But with regulators watching closely and a decade-long timeline, this time failure simply isn’t an option.
The FAA’s move, announced without fanfare when it was granted earlier in May, allows Boeing to return to performing critical certification tasks on behalf of the agency. The ODA program delegates regulatory responsibilities to manufacturers, streamlining oversight while preserving accountability through FAA supervision. Boeing engineers, known as authorized representatives, can approve design and production changes under FAA authority.
Boeing is facing a critical moment as it confronts federal criminal charges that it conspired to defraud the Federal Aviation Administration, stemming from the two fatal 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019, which killed 346 people.
U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor has introduced a fresh twist to Boeing’s high-stakes plea deal with the Department of Justice, a resolution set to address the company’s role in two fatal 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019. Central to the judge’s focus is a brief reference to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the DOJ’s plan to appoint an independent compliance monitor.
Boeing’s 777X widebody program won’t see commercial service until (at least) 2026. And Tim Clark is on a warpath over what’s now a six year delay. He offered, “I fail to see how Boeing can make any meaningful forecasts of delivery dates” at this point. Just last year he increased the carrier’s order book to 256 777X widebodies – adding 55 -9s and 35 -8s at the Dubai Air Show.
Now, he says, unless the aircraft manufacturer can raise the $10 billion it’s seeking in new equity, “I see an imminent investment downgrade with Chapter 11 looming on the horizon.”
Southwest Airlines has a lot of aircraft on order from Boeing. But they said some very strange things on their earnings call. They’re bringing on planes, but aren’t going to grow their flying at a rate faster than GDP.
In fact, they say growth in their flying is expected to come from taking their current planes and keeping them in the air more – redeyes, and faster turn times on the ground – not from Boeing deliveries. That has to mean they’ll be cancelling or deferring deliveries. They just haven’t announced it yet.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
