Boeing announces it will suspend production of 737 Max in January 2020

Dec 17 2019, 12:27 am

Boeing is suspending its 737 MAX production starting in January, due to certification moving into 2020, the company announced on Monday.

In its announcement, the company said the “reduced production output enables prioritization of stored aircraft delivery” and that “no layoffs or furlough” are expected at this time.

The announcement comes after the federal government announced in March of this year it was grounding all 737 Max 8 and 9 in Canada. This decision was made after an Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed  killing all 157 passengers on board. It was the the second crash of a MAX 8 in five months.

In its statement, Boeing said “safely returning” the Safely returning the 737 MAX to service is the company’s “top priority.”

Boeing’s full statement is below:

Safely returning the 737 MAX to service is our top priority. We know that the process of approving the 737 MAX’s return to service, and of determining appropriate training requirements, must be extraordinarily thorough and robust, to ensure that our regulators, customers, and the flying public have confidence in the 737 MAX updates. As we have previously said, the FAA and global regulatory authorities determine the timeline for certification and return to service. We remain fully committed to supporting this process. It is our duty to ensure that every requirement is fulfilled, and every question from our regulators answered.

Throughout the grounding of the 737 MAX, Boeing has continued to build new airplanes and there are now approximately 400 airplanes in storage. We have previously stated that we would continually evaluate our production plans should the MAX grounding continue longer than we expected. As a result of this ongoing evaluation, we have decided to prioritize the delivery of stored aircraft and temporarily suspend production on the 737 program beginning next month.

We believe this decision is least disruptive to maintaining long-term production system and supply chain health. This decision is driven by a number of factors, including the extension of certification into 2020, the uncertainty about the timing and conditions of return to service and global training approvals, and the importance of ensuring that we can prioritize the delivery of stored aircraft. We will continue to assess our progress towards return to service milestones and make determinations about resuming production and deliveries accordingly.

During this time, it is our plan that affected employees will continue 737-related work, or be temporarily assigned to other teams in Puget Sound. As we have throughout the 737 MAX grounding, we will keep our customers, employees, and supply chain top of mind as we continue to assess appropriate actions. This will include efforts to sustain the gains in production system and supply chain quality and health made over the last many months.

We will provide financial information regarding the production suspension in connection with our 4Q19 earnings release in late January.

Daily Hive StaffDaily Hive Staff

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