Boeing’s 737 Max Is Back. Are You Willing to Board?
The once best-selling jet is finally set to return. But both the Max and its parent will be operating at a competitive disadvantage.
Good luck to the Max as it takes to the skies again. It’s going to need it.
Photographer: Mike Siegel/The Seattle TimesBoeing Co.’s 737 Max is back. It will be flying in a very different world than the one it left some 20 months ago.
The Federal Aviation Administration approved the Max to resume commercial flights on Wednesday, ending a grounding order that was put in place after the once top-selling jet suffered a pair of fatal crashes. European regulators are expected to follow suit in coming weeks. This is a major milestone for Boeing and a turning point for a company that somehow repeatedly managed to make an already devastating crisis worse for itself — remember the overly ambitious timelines for the Max’s return? Financially, securing the FAA’s blessing will allow the company to finally make money off the roughly 450 Max jets it has built but not yet delivered because of the grounding order. These days, though, getting regulators’ approval is only half the battle for Boeing.