Originally Posted by
bocastephen
Why is CO still ordering seats from Koito??
Forget the fact they are less comfortable than sitting on a wooden bench in the park, but a simple web search shows they have a long-standing culture of falsification, safety violations and deceit - and this pre-dates the safety escapade that got the Japanese government involved.
Also, I don't believe Koito manufactured the throttle systems for Toyota - but Toyota does have an ownership stake in Koito Manufacturing and they are part of their exclusive supplier system (keiretsu).
Sounds like the perfect opportunity to source a new seat supplier and design...sometimes you need to bite the bullet and move on.
This is CO, though. Do you really expect them to look at a different seat manufacturer, even if it's just for new planes? That would involve having two (2) different types of seats, and its maintenance facilities would have to to be trained in how to install or maintain two types of seats, not to mention stock parts for them.
It would cripple the company and cost them millions. It's probably cheaper to park the new planes in Seattle until the dust settles.