Ashlee D. Smith/Southwest Airlin
Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 MAX-8 (Ashlee D. Smith/Southwest Airlines)
The Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday set a path for the return of the Boeing 737 MAX 8, 20 months after the aircraft’s grounding after two fatal crashes, but it’ll be a time before the airplane returns to the skies.
Steve Dickson, the FAA commissioner, rescinded the order that grounded the 737 MAX. The FAA also published a directive specifying required software design changes that must be made before the aircraft returns to the skies, and published new requirements for pilot training. “Airlines that have parked their MAX aircraft must take required maintenance steps to prepare them to fly again.” Airlines have also pared capacity to deal with a drop in demand during COVID-19.
Doug Parker, CEO of the Fort Worth-based American Airlines, said during a third-quarter conference call in October that the company’s MAX wouldn’t return to service before December, if the FAA issued its order in November.
Additionally, the airline said then it reached an agreement with Boeing to secure the rights to defer deliveries of 18 737 MAX aircraft scheduled to be delivered in 2021 and 2022 to 2023 and 2024. American won the right to defer deliveries of eight MAX’s it has on order for delivery in 2021, and all 10 MAX’s it has on order for delivery in 2022.
“If the deferral rates are ultimately exercised, these aircraft can be deferred from to the second half of 2023 to first quarter of 2024,” Derek Kerr, the airline’s chief financial officer, said during the call. “To avoid exercising these deferral rates, we would need to see substantial improvement in the demand environment.”
After the FAA’s directive Wednesday, Gary Kelly, CEO of the Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, said “Southwest is in receipt of the FAA's directive regarding flight control software updates and additional pilot training related to the MAX, and we are ready to meet each requirement. There is much work to be done before our MAX aircraft will resume service, which we estimate will likely take place no sooner than the second quarter of 2021.”
Kelly expressed confidence in the MAX.
“First and foremost, there is nothing more sacred to me than the safety of our customers and employees,” he said. “If we had a cause for doubt of the safety of our fleet—or any subset of it—simply put, the planes would not fly. That is a moral obligation that I share with my fellow Southwest family members who work, fly, and travel with our own families on these aircraft. This is not only our profession, career, and livelihoods—it's deeply personal to all of us.
“Our Southwest pilot leadership team has reviewed and expressed confidence in the MAX software and training updates following Boeing's enhancements to the aircraft. I have personally been in contact with Boeing and the FAA regarding the changes and have been briefed by our internal experts. Additionally, aviation regulators from countries around the world have reviewed Boeing's changes to the aircraft and the FAA's new requirements.
“I am confident we will be ready to operate the MAX in accordance with the FAA's requirements. I am going to be flying on the MAX before we return the aircraft to service—and the same is true for many other Southwest leaders.
“Before we return the aircraft to customer service, however, every active Southwest pilot will complete additional FAA-required flight training in one of our nine 737 MAX simulators and will complete additional FAA-required computer-based training covering MAX procedures. Southwest will also require active pilots to re-take our original 737 MAX 8 computer-based differences training as a refresher to complement the FAA-required training. Additionally, Southwest will conduct multiple readiness flights on each of our 34 MAX aircraft and complete thousands of hours of work, inspections, and the software updates before any of our Customers board a Southwest 737 MAX.”
Kelly noted Southwest flies only the 737. “Our pilots are highly trained and experienced at flying the aircraft. In fact, before the 737 MAX was grounded, Southwest pilots flew almost 40,000 flights on the aircraft, which is more than 89,000 flight hours.”