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The FAA could seek penalties against Boeing for failing to make disclosures about the 737 Max, the agency’s chief said at a House hearing Wednesday about the beleaguered plane. The FAA criticised the manufacturer earlier this year for not disclosing problems with a safety light that would alert pilots when sensors onboard provided conflicting information. The 737 Max has been grounded since mid-March. The FAA, which first certified the planes as safe for the flying public in 2017, is under fire for its approval and for not grounding the jets after the first crash. An internal FAA review dated after the first crash, a Lion Air flight in 2018, found more fatal crashes of the planes were possible but it allowed the planes to keep flying until a second 737 Max went down in March. “My highest priority is to make sure something like this never happens again,” FAA Administrator Steve Dickson said at the hearing before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Dickson, who was sworn in for a five-year term at the helm of the agency in August, said he has not yet made a decision on whether to seek a fine against the manufacturer, but added that he has “expressed my disappointment” with Boeing’s leadership. “I reserve the right to take further action and we very well may do that,” Dickson said.<br/>

After the first crash of a Boeing 737 Max last year, federal safety officials estimated that there could be 15 more fatal crashes of the Max over the next few decades if Boeing didn’t fix a critical automated flight-control system. Yet the FAA did not ground the plane until a second deadly crash five months later. The FAA analysis was disclosed Wednesday during a hearing of the House Transportation Committee, which is investigating the FAA’s oversight of Boeing and the Max. “The FAA rolled the dice on the safety of the traveling public and let the Max continue to fly until Boeing could overhaul its MCAS software,” said Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., the chairman of the committee. The FAA estimate covered the lifespan of the Max and assumed the fleet would eventually grow to 4,800 planes. Fewer than 400 were flying before they were grounded in March, after the second crash. The head of the FAA said his agency controls the process of approving the return to service of the troubled plane and won't delegate any of that authority to Boeing. FAA Administrator Stephen Dickson defended the safety record of U.S. aviation safety while saying “what we have done in the past and what we are doing now will not be good enough in the future.”<br/>

Airline profits are on course to fall faster than expected in 2019 as trade wars hit global commerce and broader confidence, the industry’s main global body said Wednesday, while predicting a modest recovery next year. Cutting its full-year net profit forecast to $25.9b, a 5.1% decline from 2018, the IATA said an improvement in 2020 was contingent on a “truce” in global trade disputes. In June it had forecast $28b in profit this year. “Trade wars produce no winners,” IATA Director General Alexandre de Juniac said. De Juniac also cited slower growth, Brexit and social unrest among factors that “all came together to create a tougher than anticipated business environment for airlines” in 2019. IATA slashed its full-year global revenue forecast to $838b from the $899b predicted in June and said it expected an improvement to $872b for 2020. “We’ve downgraded our forecasts for 2019 pretty much across the board,” chief economist Brian Pearce said. “It’s pretty clear that this has been driven mostly by the impact of trade wars.”<br/>

Airlines face significant problems if the return to service of the Boeing 737 MAX drags on for months longer, the head of the IATA said Wednesday. IATA Director General Alexandre de Juniac said many airlines could cope with the latest delay in the plane’s return announced earlier on Wednesday, but were nearing the end of their ability to manage the shutdown smoothly. The head of IATA was speaking shortly after the US FAA said the jet would not return to service in 2019. Reacting to the latest delay, de Juniac said, “For some of our members it is disruptive because they have a lot of planes grounded (or) on order, but they have been able to cope with that. They are not happy of course but they are not in despair.” He added, however, “If it lasts some additional months, for some of our members it would be a big problem. De Juniac said he understood why European regulators wanted to conduct their own examination of key MAX software, but called for a return to a system of mutual recognition among regulators for future programs including the upcoming Boeing 777X.<br/>

The head of the world’s main association of airlines says it needs to better explain commitments it made years ago to reduce carbon emissions, and not make new pledges collectively - despite rising environmental concerns. Alexandre de Juniac, CEO of the IATA, said perhaps “arrogance or blindness” led his group to focus on explaining its efforts to industry insiders, not the general public. “What we have seen is that nobody is aware of our program,” he said. “It's our fault, probably.” The association made three big commitments on climate action since 2008. It pledged to improve fuel efficiency by an average of 1.5% per year between 2009 and 2020 - and IATA actually achieved 2.3%, de Juniac said. It’s pledging carbon-neutral growth starting next year. And it’s committed to cut emissions to half of the level in 2005 by 2050. With concerns about the global warming caused by excessive carbon emissions from use of fossil fuels, de Juniac stopped short of recommending that IATA’s members - some 290 airlines - make new efforts together. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says aviation is responsible for 2% of global man-made carbon emissions.<br/>

Israel Aerospace Industries Wednesday said it expected the national aviation authority to approve a fix on Thursday to allow some Boeing 737 freighters converted by the state-run firm to resume flying. IAI had earlier advised customers not to fly them after saying it had detected an “apparent irregularity” in the production process of a rigid barrier installed in some of the conversions. The company has delivered 47 of the converted 737s. IAI said it had proposed an interim solution, which was reviewed by Civil Aviation Authority of Israel (CAAI). “CAAI reviewed favourably our ... interim solution and intend to issue an Airworthiness Directive tomorrow (Thursday) which will allow the aircraft to be operated safely,” IAI said. Boeing declined to comment. The Transportation Ministry, which oversees the CAAI, said IAI’s proposed solution was being tested by the authority. “If accepted, we will issue a directive to aircraft operators tomorrow,” it said. IAI, a market leader in converting passenger planes into freighters, had recommended that operators of the aircraft did not fly them until results of the CAAI’s review were known. It declined to say how many companies operated the planes.<br/>