Saturday October 17, 2020
Boeing 737 Max Can Return To Service Before Year's End In Europe: Regulator
A European regulator said the Boeing 737 Max is safe to fly again before the end of the year, the first clear timeline from a global regulator. Boeing (BA) stock soared Friday.
Patrick Ky, executive director of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, told Bloomberg that the agency is reviewing the final documents before it issues an airworthiness directive next month.
"Our analysis is showing that this is safe, and the level of safety reached is high enough for us," Ky said in the interview.
The Federal Aviation Administration, Transport Canada and EASA have completed recertification flights this summer and are analyzing the data. But the EASA is the first to give a timeline on when the jet might return to service.
FAA Administrator Steve Dickson flew the Boeing 737 Max last month. He said he liked what he saw on the flight but wanted that the FAA was "not to the point yet where we have completed the process."
Key Boeing 737 Max Device Needed
Boeing stock climbed 1.9% to close at 167.35 on the stock market today, well off its session high but still enough to retake its 50-day average after hitting resistance there for months, according to MarketSmith chart analysis. Top Boeing 737 Max supplier Spirit AeroSystems (SPR) rose 3%. Engine maker General Electric (GE) jumped 6.1%.
But the Boeing 737 Max is still missing a key device EASA wants installed. It will help simplify the pilots' reactions when one or both angle-of-attack sensors on the 737 Max fails. The sensors malfunctioned in the two deadly 737 Max crashes that lead to the jet's grounding.
Boeing will install it in the 737 Max 10 before it launches in 2022. The smaller 737 Max models will have the sensor retrofitted once it is complete in 20-24 months.
"We think that it is overall a good development which will increase the level of safety," Ky said. "It's not available now and it will be available at the same time as the Max 10 is expected to be certified."