Boeing Meets With Chinese Airlines To Discuss 737 MAX Situation
Us- aircraft manufacturer Boeing began a second discussion this week with Chinese operators of the Boeing 737 MAX to discuss the model’s status and its expected return to airworthiness in the last quarter of this year, reported FlightGlobal. In total, the company met with representatives of five airlines across the country.
The commitment of Boeing’s representatives in the Asian country, which has one of the world’s largest air markets in number of passengers, destinations and fleet, began in Guangzhou with China Southern Airlines; subsequently, it will follow Haikou, to meet with Hainan Airlines executives; Beijing, with Air China; Xiamen, with Xiamen Airlines; and finally, to Shanghai, with China Eastern Airlines.
According to Boeing, in addition to airline managers, their representatives in China will also meet with pilots, engineers and technical representatives for an open discussion on the Boeing 737 MAX. Finally, he added that he continues to work with the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), as well as with other global regulators, to complete and recertify the upgrade of model software and pilot training as soon as possible.
By April this year, with the grounding of the model following the crash with Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 in March, Boeing representatives had already met with Chinese airlines to discuss the status of the country’s 737 MAX fleet; the Chinese were the first to announce the team’s safety flight ban while US, Ethiopian and French authorities investigated the causes of the accident.
China is one of the main markets for the manufacturer Boeing, from its single aisle segment to the wide-body segment; currently in the country, a total of 97 units of the 737 MAX await on land recertification to return to the skies, with another 214 more outstanding deliveries in the coming years. According to the Japan Air Transport Association, the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX cost a total of $568 million to the country’s carriers until the end of June.