If you’re planning any air travel over the next year or two, this is probably some news that you’ll want to keep an eye on. American Airlines announced yesterday that it is going to “upgauge” its domestic and international fleet of aircraft, placing orders for more than 250 new planes. Included in the order are 85 Boeing 737 Max 10 airliners. Given the many maintenance and safety issues that Boeing has been wrestling with regarding its 737 Max series, this represents a strong vote of confidence for Boeing. But is that confidence justified at this point? If nothing else, Boeing’s stockholders will likely be cheered by the news. The company’s stock value plunged more than 10 percent after the recent blowout over Portland.
American Airlines said Monday that it is ordering 260 new narrow-body jets, including dozens of Boeing’s long-delayed 737 Max 10.
The order includes 85 of Boeing’s 737 Max 10 planes and 85 of the Airbus A321neo, aircraft it says will help it upgauge on domestic and short-haul international routes. The Fort Worth, Texas-based airline is also ordering 90 Embraer E175 planes.
American’s order is a vote of confidence for Boeing, which is struggling with a series of production flaws and certifications of new planes that have taken years longer than originally expected. Scott Kirby, the CEO of rival carrier United Airlines, said earlier this year that his airline has been weighing fleet plans without its Max 10s because of the delays.
Previously, air travelers who had concerns over flying on a Boeing Max series plane only had to avoid Alaskan Airlines and Delta. But once this order is filled, you’ll be at risk of winding up on one of the questionable jets on the majority of trips that you book, assuming you feel that it’s a risk. The Bureau of Travel reports that American Airlines accounts for the second-greatest volume of domestic air travel at 17.2%, trailing only Delta, which controls 17.7 %.
Boeing may or may not have worked the bugs out of the system and gotten the 737 Max production line under control. Public confidence in the process was further undermined yesterday when the FAA announced that its recent inspections found “multiple instances of Boeing quality control issues.” That news came not long after a group of former Boeing engineers and managers reiterated their warning that they would not fly on any 737 Max flights and would advise their friends and family against doing so.
I find myself wondering whether or not this is truly a “vote of confidence” in Boeing by American Airlines. Is that the case, or do they simply need a lot more planes of that size and the few other companies competing with Boeing just wouldn’t be able to fill the order in a reasonable amount of time? If the latter, the public’s confidence in flying American may start to decrease along with their trust in Boeing.
Keep in mind that the recent issues experienced by the public primarily involved the Max 9 series. The Boeing Max 10 hasn’t even been certified by the FAA yet and they haven’t announced a date when that certification might be expected. The company has stated that it hopes the process will be complete by the end of this year or early in 2024. The FAA test flights conducted in 2023 didn’t reveal any major safety issues that the public has been made aware of.
Just as a reminder, I am not suggesting that anyone reading this should avoid flying on flights using a 737 Max aircraft. That’s entirely up to you. There are currently 217 Max 9s in service in the United States and nearly all of them make multiple flights per day. The odds of you winding up on one where a window frame will blow out or a wing falls off are incredibly low. But those odds are also not zero at this point. If you do wind up using their service, you may want to take the flight steward’s instructions seriously and keep your seatbelt tightly fastened any time you’re not getting up to use the restroom.