Boeing has reportedly sent US regulators “troubling communications” related to the development of the 737 MAX – on the same day that the CE, Dennis Muilenburg, was forced to step aside. According to a senior Boeing executive, the documents include new messages from Mark Forkner, a senior company test pilot who complained of “egregious” erratic behavior in flight simulator tests of Boeing’s MCAS anti-stall system, and referred to “Jedi mind tricks” to persuade regulators to approve the plane. The executive said that the Forkner communications contain the same kind of “trash talking” about FAA regulators as the earlier messages released in October. The release is likely to deepen the sense of crisis enveloping Boeing. Forkner, meanwhile, has reportedly hired his own criminal defence lawyers. <br/>
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Since Boeing’s 737 Max jet was grounded in March, a question has loomed for the company: Would passengers be too scared to fly on the plane once it returned to the air? It turns out that even as Boeing continues to work on technical fixes to the plane, it has repeatedly surveyed thousands of passengers around the world to try to find out the answer. The latest results, from this month, found that 40% of regular fliers said they would be unwilling to fly on the Max. So, in a series of conference calls with airlines and in 40 pages of presentation materials, Boeing laid out strategies for airlines to help win back the public’s trust and convince travellers that the plane is safe. The calls and documents underscore the enormous challenges Boeing faces in the coming months as it tries to restore its reputation. <br/>
It is almost 15 years since David Calhoun was first considered for the role of Boeing’s CE. He was running GE’s biggest division at the time, an infrastructure unit with sales of US$47b, and was up against another veteran of the Jack Welch-era in which GE’s status as a model for the rest of US industry was rarely questioned. A decade later, in the midst of the biggest crisis in the manufacturer’s 103-year history, the board decided that Calhoun’s time had come. The man he will replace as CE, Dennis Muilenburg, was not invited to participate in the Sunday evening call which sealed his fate. Several analysts attributed Muilenburg’s fumbled response when two of its 737 Max jets crashed within a few months of each other to the fact that the life-long Boeing employee was, first and foremost, an engineer. <br/>
More than 160 flights out of Chicago’s two international airports were canceled Tuesday morning because of heavy fog, disrupting plans for Christmas Eve travellers. O’Hare International reported 91 canceled flights as of 1:30 pm local time, with average delays of more than half an hour, and Midway International reported 71 cancellations. A ground stop for arriving flights into Chicago was in effect from about 5:30 am until 9:30 am, said a spokesman for the FAA. The National Weather Service issued a dense fog advisory over the Chicago area early Tuesday, saying that the conditions could reduce visibility to a quarter mile or less. The advisory has since expired. The FAA also briefly issued a ground stop for flights arriving at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Tuesday morning because of low cloud cover. <br/>
Mexico’s decision to cancel a US$13b airport has made investors hungrier to participate in the expansion of Peru’s main air terminus, according to the project’s director. Anton Aramayo, who is overseeing the plans at Lima Airport Partners, said dozens of international companies are interested in bidding for around $1.2b of works to build a second runway and a new passenger terminal. The cancellation of Mexico’s giant Texcoco airport last year helps to explain the interest. Aramayo says strong demand for engineering contracts could help drive down the overall cost of the airport’s expansion, which is currently estimated at about $1.5b, he said. The project is long overdue. The Jorge Chavez International Airport will handle more than 23m passengers this year, up from roughly 10m a decade ago. <br/>
Seoul Incheon International plans to boost inbound tourism by increasing the number of slots come 2020. Incheon is operating at close to capacity and the operator says that this causes restrictions on new and additional flights. At current capacity, it can handle 65 operations per hour and plans to increase this to 70 per hour will allow for additional 16,000 flights each year. Further to that, the airport is offering a US$50,000 subsidy on marketing expenses for launching trial flights, and up to $860,000 on strategic routes with high inbound traffic and transit passengers. The cargo sector, which was adversely impacted by US-China trade issues, will benefit from reductions in landing and parking fees. <br/>