BearX220

Gloves come off: Minicucci joins Kirby / UA in going after Boeing hard in the popular press, breaking a long-standing taboo against airline CEOs criticizing planemakers in public so vehemently.

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/bus...ays-rcna135316

Kacee

He needs to walk back "proudly all Boeing."

Pretty vague on future fleet mix:

anhuang19

Certainly paints a much bleaker image on the return to service for AS Max 9's.

I hope this public statement can allow schedule planners to take a much more conservative approach to cancellations.

sfozrhfco

Surely today is not the first day AS's management team has been made aware of the problems with QC at Boeing. They weren't so angry just a few days ago

Focus on their actions rather than their words.

They still need to come up with a flyable schedule. Once Presidents Day and Spring Break comes around, do they really want people waiting for hours on the phone to figure out how they are going to get home after their flights cancel at the last minute?

They were extremely lucky this happened during the very slowest travel weeks of the year but that period is rapidly coming to a close.

cragAK

Well great, can't wait for my JFK-SEA flight on Friday to get cancelled now. Was hoping this was going to be a one off issue.

eponymous_coward

I wouldn't expect anything written in stone at this juncture given that completely redoing your fleet plans for a decade isn't something you just do over the weekend, or impulsively. It's the sort of thing that materially affects your operations in a number of ways so this is where you discuss as part of quarterly earnings or investor updates after giving it some thought.

AS execs sure did like the A321neo's performance though when they had them though.

Kacee

Yep. It seems perhaps the video didn't go over so well.
Who said anything about written in stone?

He should at a minimum say "we're reevaluating our 100% commitment to Boeing."

eponymous_coward

FlyerTalk: where everyone can be an Executive VP in charge of microparsing a Fortune 500 CEO's public statements to the media (especially on a matter where litigation is possible).

williwaw

Micro parsing the bits the reporter captured and the editor didn’t cut…

wheelsup57

I have a multi part question.
Didn’t Minicucci know about the numerous instances of loose bolts on the max’ door plug some weeks ago? If so, is Minucci’s anger performative and trying to keep up with the United CEO’s anger from yesterday?

Or,has yesterdays announcement from the FAA regarding “findings” on the 900er, justifiably tipped him over the edge so to speak .

If the latter is true, when will we learn more about these findings and why is the 900er deemed ok while the MAX is not?***


*** Yes, I know that the max had a door blow off and the 900er did not, but that surely is not the distinction here.

985X

Seems like they are actually hiring schedule/network planners...
Shall I give it a try?

diver858

I am not nearly as pessimistic; coming up with a solution for such an obvious issue should be straightforward, with a relatively easy, quick fix. FAA / NTSB are likely dragging their feet, applying maximum possible pain and suffering on Boeing, airlines will likely start pushing back when it is seen as grandstanding.

My next flight is in late February, cautiously optimistic it will be on the currently scheduled MAX9.

eponymous_coward

I think it's an evolving situation where the AS C-suite learning how deep the turd pile is as they go along, with a lot of competing priorities: safety, relationships with vendors, customers, government bodies and shareholders, plus a heapin' helpin' of litigation potential.

As such, I don't expect a CEO to be as candid with the public as they are internally (having gotten some briefings from a Fortune 500 company's C-suite personally where it's "please do not publicly discuss what we're discussing here, and we have limited things we're going to say publicly right now.")

The fact that AS"s position on fleet plans and Boeing as a supplier seems to be evolving right now before our eyes is just not surprising, all things considered. So let it evolve.

sfozrhfco

Very doubtful that the FAA is dragging their feet. If no other issues were discovered in the inspections of other aircraft, it would make far more sense that this was a one off problem. Given that many other aircraft have issues too, trust with the whole manufacturing process is broken. If Boeing and their suppliers can't build and inspect in accordance with their own specs, how can any airline or the FAA trust that other problems were not overlooked? Thus it has become a much bigger and time consuming issue.

Short of sending all new build Max's to the recycler, the FAA is going to have to check every step of the process, all the sign offs for each plane, and see where the points of failure are and then recommend solutions. That is not something that happens in a matter of days.

PotomacApproach

Is he angry at his own people for doing nothing about the maintenance lights, and flying a plane they wouldn't let go to Hawaii?