FAA Halts Production Expansion of Boeing 737 MAX After Audit Finds Quality Control Issues

Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun will step down by the end of the year, Boeing said Monday. In addition, Stan Deal, chief of the company's commercial airplane division, will retire immediately, while board chair Larry Kellner will not run for reelection.

The Federal Aviation Administration is increasing its oversight of United Airlines following a string of safety incidents. 

Delta Air Lines is confident in the prospects for its growing Austin focus city, even as its competitor American Airlines has pulled back on some of its own post-coronavirus pandemic expansion in the Texas capital.

Following last week’s incident, in which a LATAM Airlines suddenly plunged downward in mid-flight, major aircraft manufacturer Boeing is advising airlines to inspect switches on cockpit seats aboard their 787 Dreamliner planes as a precautionary measure. According to AP News, a published report pointed to these switches as the apparent cause of last week’s incident. 

After a spate of high-profile airline industry incidents, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby has issued a memo addressing safety concerns.In the memo Kirby said safety is the airline’s top priority, according to a report from The Points Guy.The airline CEO also discussed United’s own safety incidents, including acknowledging the airline has had “a number” of such incidents."While they are all unrelated, I want you to know that these incidents have our attention and have sharpened our focus," Kirby wrote, per The Points Guy. "Our team is reviewing the details of each case to understand what happened and using those insights to inform our safety training and procedures across all employee groups.”The memo from the CEO also indicates that United is working on rolling out a variety of new safety measures. Though Kirby also explained that the new safety upgrades were in the works before United’s recent spate of safety episodes. Some of the new measures the airline will be implementing include an extra day of training for pilots and new curriculum for maintenance technicians."I'm confident that we'll learn the right lessons from these recent incidents and continue to run an operation that puts safety first and makes our employees and customers proud," Kirby added.Kirby’s memo comes on the heels of a rocky few months for the airline industry as a whole. The most significant of which was the January 5 incident involving a Alaska Airlines’ Boeing 737 Max flight during which a door plug blew off after take-off and the plane was required to make an emergency landing.A handful of passengers who were on that Alaska Airlines flight have since filed a $1 billion lawsuit against Boeing, alleging negligence on the part of the plane manufacturer.As for United Airlines, one of its flights involving a 737 Max rolled off the runway at George W. Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston recently. Part of the plane’s landing gear collapsed as a result. That United incident followed a tire falling from a Boeing 777-200 plane (also flown by United) one day earlier.

Affiliate links for the products on this page are from partners that compensate us and terms apply to offers listed (see our advertiser disclosure with our list of partners for more details). However, our opinions are our own. See how we rate credit cards to write unbiased product reviews.

A United Airlines jet was found to be missing an external panel after completing a scheduled flight to southern Oregon on Friday.

Customers may soon feel the impact of the Boeing 737 Max blowout as airlines face uncertainty about their future fleets.

Alaska Air Group announced its quarterly financial results would not be as bad as initially expected following a January incident that saw one of its planes lose a door midflight and the subsequent grounding of several aircraft in the carrier’s fleet.

Southwest Airlines is the latest Boeing 737 Max operator to set out the scale of delivery delays. In a filing Tuesday, the carrier said there would be a reduction in the number of new planes it will receive in 2024. 

There’s exciting news for those looking to discover the increasingly popular Faroe Islands in 2024; this unique destination will soon be more accessible following Icelandair’s newest route expansion.

Jumeirah Group has appointed a chief brand officer to “spearhead the evolution of the brand,” the luxury Dubai hotel chain said Thursday.