Boeing said Sunday it understood the outcry over leaked messages from a former test pilot over erratic software behavior on its 737 MAX jet 2 years before recent crashes, and added it was still investigating what they meant. The planemaker, under growing pressure to explain what it knew about 737 MAX problems before it entered service, said it had not been able to speak directly to former employee Mark Forkner but echoed his lawyer's subsequent claims that the problems were linked to a faulty simulator. The role of the simulator has emerged as a crucial issue since the 2016 messages surfaced Friday, since investigators will want to know whether erratic movements reported by the pilot meant Boeing was aware of problems on the aircraft itself or only in the artificial cockpit. <br/>
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Boeing may have to book billions of dollars in additional charges related to its parked 737 MAX jets, brokerages said Monday, citing fresh uncertainty over the time frame for lifting a safety ban imposed after deadly crashes. Credit Suisse and UBS downgraded the stock after Reuters Friday reported that a series of internal messages from a former Boeing pilot described the plane’s software as behaving erratically months before the jet entered service. The new revelation plunged the planemaker into a fresh crisis involving its flagship single-aisle aircraft, as the worldwide safety ban on the 737 MAX stretches into its eighth month. Boeing booked a US$5.6b pre-tax charge in Q2 and in July had estimated the total cost of the MAX grounding to be more than US$8b. <br/>
Despite having the "biggest potential" in the region and accounting for around 40% of Latin American GDP, Brazil "is not a competitive country for the industry", ALTA's executive director Luis Felipe de Oliveira said. De Oliveira met the vice-president of Brazil, Hamilton Mourao, in July to discuss the commercial aviation industry's role in boosting Brazil's economic recovery. Among the most pressing issues, jet fuel in Brazil is "the most expensive in the world", de Oliveira suggests. He explains that the global average in terms of jet fuel's proportion of airline costs is "around 22.5%. In Brazil, it is around 30%," he says, adding: "Considering the low margins we have here in the industry, that's really affected us a lot and reduced competitiveness as well." <br/>
IATA is urging the Hong Kong govt to provide financial relief for the local aviation industry, which is reeling from prolonged civic unrest in the region. The organisation, however, did not provide specifics on the types or recipients of the proposed relief. The Hong Kong aviation and tourism sectors support 330,300 jobs and provide 10.2% of the territory’s GDP, IATA said. “Any further prolongation of the disturbances may induce airlines to more drastically change the amount of services, either in terms of seats and/or frequencies,” IATA warned. IATA said it is confident the aviation industry will recover quickly from the disruptions caused by anti-govt protests, but it described the 15.4% YOY decline in passenger departures from Hong Kong International in August as “unprecedented in major markets.” <br/>