U.S. airlines intend to make the initial 737 MAX flights without passengers to shore up pilot and customer confidence in the aircraft
By Andy Pasztor and Alison Sider Updated Nov. 3, 2019 7:54 pm ET Airlines aren’t leaving it to Boeing Co. BA 1.55% and the Federal Aviation Administration to reassure travelers the 737 MAX will be safe to fly. They are devising plans to conduct their own demonstration flights with senior company officials on board to amplify that message.
The airlines don’t intend to duplicate the months of intense analysis and flight testing the FAA has conducted in conjunction with foreign regulators, these officials said. Rather, the flights are designed as part of a public-relations drive to show that the industry is going to extra lengths to highlight its commitment to safely phase the planes back into schedules.
“We look forward to supporting our airline customers, their pilots and flight attendants as the MAX returns to commercial service,” a Boeing spokesman said. “Restoring the trust of the traveling public in the safety of the 737 MAX once it’s recertified is our top priority.” “It’s really important for our customers to see the plane is flying again,” said Ross Feinstein, a spokesman for American Airlines Group Inc. Top executives, members of the media and potentially corporate clients will likely board some of these early flights.
European aviation regulators have opted to conduct a batch of separate and more-detailed test flights, in addition to those slated by the FAA, to convince themselves that final software fixes related to MCAS are acceptable. Those tests are likely to delay return of the MAX at airports across the Atlantic by at least several weeks.
But Southwest executives have said passengers might not be so reticent. The carrier has been surveying its customers and conducting focus groups on how to best restore confidence in the plane, executives have said. Southwest President Tom Nealon said a tiny percentage of customers—less than 1%—check what kind of plane their flight will be on, despite the onslaught of MAX-related news in recent months.
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