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BUSINESS Wednesday 22 January 2020
A25

Boeing doesn't expect Max jet

to be cleared until summer

By DAVID KOENIG controls and pilot-training busy summer travel season
AP Airlines Writer requirements. is over.
Boeing said Tuesday that The latest timetable is Even after the FAA certifies
it doesn't expect federal based on work remaining Boeing's work, airlines will
regulators to approve its to be done before the Fed- need several more weeks
changes to the grounded eral Aviation Administration to prepare their grounded
737 Max until this summer, will allow the Max back in planes and train pilots. Af-
several months longer than the sky including work on ter long insisting that train-
the company was saying flight-control computers, ing could be done quickly In this Dec. 16, 2019, file photo a worker looks up underneath a
just a few weeks ago. according to two people on tablets, Boeing recently Boeing 737 MAX jet in Renton, Wash.
That timetable — the lat- familiar with the matter, reversed course and rec- Associated Press
est of several delays in the who spoke on condition ommended that pilots go
plane's approval process of anonymity to discuss through sessions on flight pany is still working on
— will create more head- details that Boeing did not simulators before operat- changes to flight-control
aches for airlines by push- provide. ing the plane, adding more computers and pilot-train-
ing the Max's return further The FAA said in a statement time to airline preparations. ing requirements. Another
into the peak summer trav- that it is conducting "a thor- Shortly after the first Max software issue was discov-
el season or possibly be- ough, deliberate process" crash in October 2018 in ered last week, although
yond it. to make sure that Boeing's Indonesia, Boeing began one of the people famil-
Boeing shares fell nearly 6% changes to the Max meet updating software that iar with the situation said it
at one point, to a 52-week certification standards. The investigators say was trig- would not cause more de-
low, and closed down 3.4%. agency said, as it has for gered by a faulty sensor lay in the plane's return.
The company said regula- months, that it has no time- and pushed the plane's News of the latest delay in
tors will decide when the table for completing its re- nose down. Then in March Boeing's timing was first re-
Max flies again but that it view. 2019, another Max crashed ported by CNBC.
periodically gives airlines The three U.S. airlines that in Ethiopia. In all, 346 peo- Shares of Chicago-based
and suppliers its best esti- own Maxes — Southwest, ple died. Boeing Co. fell $10.87 to
mate of when that will hap- American and United — Boeing has made the soft- close at $313.28. Trading
pen. have scrubbed the plane ware less powerful and tied was briefly halted before
"This updated estimate is from their schedules un- it to two sensors instead of the company issued its an-
informed by our experi- til early June. It is possible, one. That work was done nouncement about the
ence to date with the cer- however, that they won't months ago, but the com- Max.q
tification process," Boeing use the planes until much
said in a statement. "It is later, possibly after the
subject to our ongoing at-
tempts to address known
schedule risks and further
developments that may
arise in connection with
the certification process. It
also accounts for the rigor-
ous scrutiny that regulatory
authorities are rightly ap-
plying at every step of their
review" of the plane's flight