Boeing chairman, president and CE Dennis Muilenburg has released an open letter to airlines, passengers and the aviation community reinforcing the company’s commitment to safety, as most of the global fleet of Boeing 737 Max aircraft enters its second week of groundings. The letter repeatedly affirmed Boeing’s commitment to safety, and its unity with regulators and airline customers to understand what happened in the crashes of Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air planes. “Based on facts from the Lion Air Flight 610 accident and emerging data as it becomes available from the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 accident, we’re taking actions to fully ensure the safety of the 737 Max," he wrote. Muilenburg also reiterated that a software update and related pilot training for the Max will be released soon. <br/>
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Federal investigators and lawmakers are asking the same question about Boeing’s 737 MAX jet: Did US safety regulators rigorously follow longstanding engineering and design standards in approving a suspect stall-prevention feature? Officials from the Justice Department and the DoT inspector general’s office are looking into how Boeing developed the aircraft, which has been involved in 5 fatal crashes within 5 months. The inspector general’s office is also scrutinising whether the FAA took any shortcuts compromising safety. Boeing was eager to complete the design and certification process as quickly as possible, according to people who were involved. Boeing has said the FAA certified the 737 MAX according to identical requirements and processes for previous airplanes after a 6-year, methodical development. <br/>
Boeing’s efforts to return the grounded 737 MAX airliner to the sky after 2 fatal crashes face another hurdle after the head of EASA said it will give extra scrutiny to the plane before clearing it to fly. Boeing is working on a fix to a stall-prevention system on the MAX known as MCAS to address problems that caused it to misfire when one of the plane’s operated by Lion Air crashed in Indonesia in October. Investigators into the Ethiopian Airlines March 10 crash of the same plane model have said they see similarities between the two accidents. Tuesday, EASA executive director Patrick Ky, in a hearing before the European Parliament’s Transport and Tourism Committee said “I can guarantee to you that, on our side, we will not allow the aircraft to fly if we have not found an acceptable answer to all our questions whatever the FAA does.” <br/>
The White House plans to nominate former Delta Air Lines senior VP of flight operations Steve Dickson to lead the FAA. The nomination comes more than a year since the end of previous FAA administrator Michael Huerta's term, and at a time when the aviation regulator is under scrutiny for its certification of the Boeing 737 Max following 2 fatal crashes. Dickson, if confirmed by the Senate, will replace Daniel Elwell who has been acting administrator since Jan 2018. Dickson oversaw safety and operational performance at Delta prior to his retirement in October 2018. He is also a licensed pilot most recently certified on the Boeing 757 and 767. Dickson will serve a 5-year term as FAA administrator if he is confirmed. <br/>
Alaska's largest airport is expecting a big increase in passenger capacity during the summer tourist season. Officials at Ted Stevens Anchorage International are looking forward to a "significant increase" in summer 2019 passenger capacity as more tourists visit Alaska. The projected 6% growth in seat capacity equals an additional 68,000 passenger seats on flights to Anchorage compared to last year. They said that increase is on top of a 4.5% increase last summer. Alaska Airlines should increase passenger capacity between Anchorage and Seattle, while Allegiant is expected to add service between Anchorage and Bellingham, Washington. United Airlines anticipates more flights from New York, and Air Canada will likely increase flight frequency between Anchorage and Vancouver, airport officials said. <br/>
US Senators Jeff Merkley and John Kennedy are asking US airlines to provide information about whether they use cameras to monitor passengers, following a report by CNN in March that raised questions about the tiny cameras passengers have spotted in IFE systems. The senators have given 8 US carriers—Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines and United Airlines—1 month to answer the lawmakers’ questions about their use of the cameras. “We are alarmed by reports that airlines may be using cameras on IFE systems to monitor passengers,” the senators wrote. “Should these reports of the use of undisclosed cameras on IFE systems be true, it would be a serious breach of privacy.” <br/>
China is looking at excluding Boeing’s troubled 737 Max jet from a list of American exports it would buy as part of a trade deal with the US, people familiar with the matter said. Boeing jets were featured on a draft list of American products China would buy to reduce its trade surplus with the US, the people said. Now, safety concerns are pushing China to examine whether to cut the 737 Max from the list altogether or replace it with other Boeing models after the crash of a plane operated by Ethiopian Airlines led to the aircraft being grounded worldwide, they said. For Boeing, China’s exclusion of Max purchases in a trade deal would mark another setback for a company that’s reeling from a crisis of confidence over its top-selling plane, which accounts for almost a third of its operating profit. <br/>