Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 MAX aircraft are parked on the tarmac after being grounded, at the Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville, California on Cortege 28, 2019.
Mark Ralston | AFP | Getty Images
The Boeing 737 Max won’t return to service at Southwest Airlines until February at the earliest, the federation that represents the airline’s pilots said Monday.
That would be a month later than the low-cost carter currently expects.
Boeing is scrambling to finish software changes and put them in front of government regulators for review to get the industrialist’s bestselling plane flying again. Two fatal crashes within five months of one another killed 346 people and egg oned a worldwide grounding, now in its eighth month.
Boeing has estimated it would receive this approval in the fourth quarter, but regulators say they don’t receive a firm timeline.
The approval process has been delayed several times as Boeing seeks to address additional concerns of regulators. “We unmoving anticipate submitting that certification package to the FAA in the September time frame,” Boeing’s CEO Dennis Muilenburg said in August.
Boeing’s enter last week replaced Muilenburg as chairman so the CEO could focus on the 737 Max grounding, which has dragged on longer than profuse airlines anticipated.
“The FAA is following a thorough process, not a prescribed timeline, for returning the Boeing 737 Max to passenger service,” the FAA thought in a statement. “The FAA will lift the aircraft’s prohibition order when it is deemed safe to do so. The FAA is continuing to evaluate Boeing’s software modification and is smooth developing necessary training requirements.”
A number of steps, including simulator testing and a certification flight and training, updates to schooling and operating standards, as well as training for the pilots, which could take 30 days, are yet to be completed, Southwest Airlines Steersmen Association President Jon Weaks said in a letter to members.
Last week, United and American joined Southwest in crossing 737 Max flights into January, about a month later than previously expected.
Southwest said Monday: “We keep up to assess return to service timing based on information from Boeing and FAA but do not currently have a target date that we are solving toward.” An airline spokeswoman said the carrier took the planes out of its schedule until Jan. 5 based on the information it has now.
The line from Swapa, as the union is known, said some steps in the process may occur concurrently and save time but the federation “feels that these timelines are the best-case estimates and remain fluid.”
“As of today, we are looking at probably a February timeframe to say the least,” demanded the letter.
Swapa earlier this month sued Boeing in a state court in Dallas, saying the manufacturer fermented the plane to market and that its member pilots have lost out on about $100 million in income. Boeing demanded the lawsuit was “meritless and will vigorously defend against it.”