Boeing slows 737 production
Boeing has announced its decision to slow down 737 production following the ongoing groundings of the type around the world, preventing deliveries.
From the middle of April, Boeing will reduce production from 52 aircraft per month to 42 – a 19% reduction. The move allows Boeing to retain current employment levels while they continue to work on the development, certification and roll-out of the new Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) software update.
Simultaneously, Boeing is working on updated pilot training manuals and interactive courses for MCAS. An internal safety committee has also been formed to review how the company designs and builds aircraft.
With this committee, an entire company evaluation will be conducted, verifying policies and processes involved in aircraft design and development. The committee will not only focus on the 737 MAX, but also all the other aircraft programs.
The CEO of Boeing, Dennis Mullenburg, states the company is working with customers and suppliers to ensure operational disruption and financial impact is kept to a minimum from this production rate change.
The preliminary report on the crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 was released recently, which you can read about here:
Preliminary crash report of Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX released