Up in the air... American Airlines just flew the first public Boeing 737 MAX flight since March 2019. The FAA grounded Boeing's troubled airliner after two crashes that killed 346 people. Last month, the 737 MAX was cleared to fly again. But American still has a lot of convincing to do before December 29th, when its first commercial MAX flight departs from Miami. Which brings us to Wednesday...
- American's 1-hour test flight was filled with journalists. The pilot explained changes that were made to the plane to address safety issues.
- American also flew the first of five employee-only “flights to nowhere” on the 737 MAX. It needs to win back employee confidence before it wins back public confidence.
Oh, Boeing... This press stunt reminds us of when NYC marched elephants across the Brooklyn Bridge in the 1880s to prove it was safe. But American, which has the world's largest fleet of planes, is eager to get passengers back: out of its nearly 900 planes, 24 are MAXes. That's over $1B worth of planes that have been sitting in parking lots for nearly two years (big L).
This could backfire for American... Unless you’re an aviation geek (#avgeek), you probably don't pay much attention to your plane model — or even if it was Boeing vs. Airbus. But this publicity associates American with the 737 MAX. The FAA's boss said he's now "100% confident" in the plane's safety, and Ryanair just ordered 75 MAXes. That all helped send American shares up 7%, and Boeing up 10% for the week. Still: Southwest says 25% of its customers wouldn't feel comfortable flying on one.