Boeing’s board of directors have decided to halt the production of the 737 MAX from January 2020 in order to focus on the delivery of stored aircraft. The airliner has now been grounded now for nine months.
The decision is the result of the FAA’s announcement that certification would not happen this year. “The decision is motivated by the recent confirmation from the FAA that the certification would not happen in 2019. “We believe this decision is least disruptive to maintaining long-term production system and supply chain health,” announced Boeing, adding, “we will continue to assess our progress towards return to service milestones and make determinations about resuming production and deliveries accordingly.”
Boeing has not stated how long production will be shutdown for, but prior to the grounding Boeing was producing 52 aircraft per month, this was reduced to 42 after the worldwide grounding. It has now more than 400 planes, valued at US$20 billion at list price, waiting to be delivered to their operators once the grounding is lifted. There are currently more that 4,500 orders for the Boeing 737 MAX series from airlines across the world.
The manufacturer will present the total cost of the suspension in January 2020, during its yearly financial report.
