Boeing 737 Max airplanes sit parked at the corporate’s production facility on November 18, 2020 in Renton, Washington.
David Ryder | Getty Images
Boeing on Thursday warned it is going to likely have to scale back deliveries of its 737 Max airplane within the near term due to an issue with a component made by supplier Spirit AeroSystems.
Boeing said its supplier informed the corporate a “non-standard” manufacturing process was used on two fittings in aft fuselages. It said the problem affects certain 737 Max 8 planes, the corporate’s hottest model, with customers including American Airlines and Southwest Airlines. It also affects certain 737 Max 7, the 737 8200 and P-8 planes.
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Boeing said the issue was not an “immediate safety of flight issue and the in-service fleet can proceed operating safely.”
Boeing has notified the Federal Aviation Administration of the problem and is working to examine and address the fuselages as needed, the corporate said. The FAA said Boeing notified it of the problem and in addition said there isn’t any immediate safety issue.
Nevertheless, the problem will likely affect a big variety of undelivered 737 Max airplanes, each in production and in storage,” the manufacturer said in a press release.
“We expect lower near-term 737 MAX deliveries while this required work is accomplished. We regret the impact that this issue could have on affected customers and are in touch with them concerning their delivery schedule,” Boeing said in a press release. “We are going to provide additional information in the times and weeks ahead as we higher understand the delivery impacts.”
The issue, essentially the most recent in a string of production issues, hits Boeing because it scrambles to extend production and deliveries of its best-selling plane while customers await latest jetliners to capitalize on a rebound in travel. Boeing will likely update investors on the problem during its annual shareholders meeting, scheduled for Tuesday.
Shares of Boeing fell 5% Friday. Shares of Spirit AeroSystems fell 20%.
Spirit manufacturers a number of the fuselages utilized in Boeing jets and said in a press release it notified Boeing of a “quality issue” with certain 737 models.
“Spirit is working to develop an inspection and repair for the affected fuselages. We proceed to coordinate closely with our customer to resolve this matter and minimize impacts while maintaining our give attention to safety,” the corporate said.
It’s the most recent production problem for Boeing and its customers. Boeing earlier this yr paused deliveries of its 787 Dreamliners for several weeks to handle a knowledge evaluation flaw, and in 2021 and 2022 it struggled with other production flaws on the wide-body jets that halted deliveries for months.
The corporate on Tuesday reported March deliveries of 64 planes, the very best tally since December, amid an industry-wide shortage of recent jets.
Airline executives have cited aircraft supply constraints as among the many chief challenges in ramping up flying ahead of the height travel season.
“We’re aware of the problem and dealing with Boeing to grasp how it might impact our MAX deliveries,” an American Airlines spokesman said in statement.
Southwest said in a press release that it expects the problem to affect its delivery schedule of recent Max planes and that it’s discussing the small print of that timeline for this yr “and beyond.”
United said it didn’t expect any “significant impact” to its capability planes for this summer or the remainder of 2023.
— CNBC’s Leslie Josephs and Phil LeBeau contributed to this report.
