Flight International – 11 June 2019

30 | Flight International | 11-17 June 2019 flightglobal.com

PARIS

Special report

After two crashes within five JON HEMMERDINGER BOSTON

months, Seattle has a tough

job to restore confidence

in narrowbody family as

uncertainty surrounds the

airframer’s attempts to

return it safely to service

Boeing beneath

shadow of the Max

I

magine, momentarily, that two Boeing 737

Max had not crashed, that 346 people had

not died and that regulators had not ground-

ed Boeing’s most popular aircraft. In such a

world, Boeing would be riding high at this

year’s Paris show, brimming with optimism

and promoting its 737 Max as a winner.

Reality, however, has other plans. Al-

though the company could land widebody

orders or announce news relating to its pro-

posed New Mid-market Airplane (NMA), the

737 Max crisis will overshadow all else.

What everyone wants to know is, when

will the 737 Max return to the skies? Boeing,

of course, is unable to answer that question;

return to service lies largely in the hands of

regulators who must evaluate a software fix

Boeing hopes will resolve the problem.

With so much uncertainty for Boeing, how

might the company, long among the most ad-

Re-engined type has

been under global

scrutiny this year