DUBLIN (Reuters) – The global airline industry is meeting for the first time since an Alaska Airlines plane crash plunged Boeing into a new crisis as regulators step up factory inspections.
Lessors, bankers and airlines are gathering at a week-long airline economics conference in Dublin, where the global airline finance industry is booming.
They examine, among other things, the consequences on supply of the recent partial immobilization of the Boeing 737 MAX 9, following the accident which occurred at the beginning of January, during which a part of the fuselage became detached from an Alaska Airlines aircraft.
For months, the aviation sector has struggled to keep up with the sustained recovery in travel after the COVID-19 pandemic, amid shortages of labor and spare parts.
But the general indignation sparked by the accident, which led to an emergency landing without serious injuries, triggered a new round of safety regulations.
Rob Morris, a manager at consultancy Ascend by Cirium, told Reuters that demand was “more or less assured”.
“The question is when supply will catch up. We have estimated 2026 or 2027, but there must be a downside risk now because of the MAX,” he said Monday, before the start of the conference.
Last week, the US Civil Aviation Authority (FAA) exceptionally ordered Boeing to halt production of the 737 MAX until quality control problems were resolved.
The FAA has given no indication of how long this limitation will last, but when it is lifted, industry experts say regulators should maintain additional controls that could reduce production forecasts.
While a previous safety crisis linked to fatal Boeing 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 prompted regulators to step up scrutiny of plane design and development, subsequent discoveries of loose bolts elsewhere in the fleet could weigh on production.
According to analysts, this means that the two crises will respectively impact the development of aircraft and the speed of their production.
Several industry commentators, including influential analyst Richard Aboulafia, have called for Boeing Chief Executive Dave Calhoun, or other executives and board members, to step down.
Boeing declined to comment directly on the remarks.
(Reporting by Tim Hepher and Padraic Halpin, with contributions from Conor Humphries, Valerie Insinna, David Shepardson; French version Stéphanie Hamel and Mathias de Rozario, editing by Kate Entringer)
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