Investigators are still investigating why debris from a Boeing plane blew up an Alaska Airlines flight over the weekend. United Airlines found similar loose bolts on its 737 Max 9 planes, suggesting the plane’s problems may be more widespread.
This is the latest issue with Boeing’s flagship aircraft. Issues with suppliers surfaced last summer, and about five years ago, two 737 Max planes crashed, grounding the planes for more than a year. However, the company may not lose much business as a result of this incident.
Even before the Alaska Airlines incident, Boeing’s recent performance wasn’t all that great.
“The industry perception is that Boeing has a lot of quality problems,” said John Goglia, an independent safety consultant and former member of the National Transportation Safety Board.
Those problems are causing headaches for Boeing’s commercial airline customers, he said.
“Customers are spending a tremendous amount of time fixing problems that never should have left the factory,” says Goglia.
In many industries, orders from suppliers are canceled if the products a company relies on do not meet standards. But with commercial jets, it’s not so easy. Richard Aboulafia, managing director of Aerodynamics Advisory, explained that one reason for this is that waiting times for jets have traditionally been years.
“If you want to reserve your seat, you might order a plane that will be delivered in 2028,” he says.
And there isn’t much room for competition in the airplane manufacturing industry. Besides Boeing, European-based Airbus is the only other company eyeing large jets in the city.
“Their only competitor, Airbus, has an even longer backlog,” Aboulafia said. So if you’re an airline customer for the 737 Max, another option would be to go with Airbus and wait until 2030 for the jet to arrive. ”
Aboulafia believes this means very few airlines will drop Boeing because of the 737 Max crash.
However, Boeing has been losing market share to Airbus in recent years. As of mid-December, Boeing had orders for about 1,000 jets in 2023, compared to Airbus’ orders for about 1,400, according to Reuters. But maintaining some level of competition in the aircraft manufacturing sector is important for airlines, said George Dimitrov of Sirium Ascend Consultants.
He said: “If everyone starts running to Airbus, we will be acutely aware that it will eliminate Boeing, Airbus’ only significant competitor, which could have a long-term impact on aircraft prices.” said.
But Dimitrov said that in the short term, some airlines planning to order from Boeing this year may wait to see what happens in the aftermath of the Alaska Airlines disaster.
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