Boeing now expects the FAA will certificate the 737 Max in the middle of 2020, marking another delay to the aircraft’s flight approval, which some industry observers had expected would come early this year. “We are informing our customers and suppliers that we are currently estimating that the un-grounding of the 737 Max will begin during mid-2020. This estimate is informed by our experience to date with the certification process.” Boeing’s latest projection “accounts for the rigorous scrutiny that regulatory authorities are rightly applying at every step of their review of the 737 Max’s flight control system, and the Joint Operations Evaluation Board process, which determines pilot training requirements,” the company says. <br/>
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Boeing has scheduled the 777X’s maiden sortie Jan 23, an event that will finally kick off the revamped widebody’s delayed flight-test programme and potentially keep the airframer on track to begin deliveries in early 2021. Getting the flight-test programme underway will mark a major milestone for Boeing, which has been hammered by a series of major issues, the most-prominent being the 737 Max’s grounding. But the 777X programme has been beset by delays, and analysts have raised concerns about how quickly the FAA, under extreme pressure to prevent a repeat of the 737 Max’s certification issues, will approve the new big twin. Boeing initially planned to complete first flight of the 777-9 in 2019 and to begin deliveries in 2020. But an issue with the GE9X powerplants stymied Boeing’s plan. <br/>
The chairman of Air Lease, which has 150 of Boeing's grounded 737 MAX jet on order, has called on the manufacturer to drop the "damaged" MAX brand to avoid it undermining the plane's value. The comments by Steven Udvar-Hazy, one of the founders of the airplane leasing industry which finances around half of the world's passenger fleet, echoed a call by US president Donald Trump in April last year to "rebrand" its 737 MAX jetliner. "We've asked Boeing to get rid of that word MAX," Udvar-Hazy said Monday. "The MAX brand is damaged and there is really no reason for it," he added. Airlines are still trying to gauge passengers' reluctance to fly on the MAX, and how long this will last, Udvar-Hazy said. "Will it be 2 months, will it be 6 months, will it be different in different parts of the world?" <br/>
Airbus is to increase its A321 production capability, by converting its A380 facilities in Toulouse in order to accommodate a digitally-enabled A321 final assembly line. It will introduce A321 production to Toulouse for the first time – Airbus’s largest single-aisle variant is currently built in Hamburg Finkenwerder and Mobile. The airframer says the change – to be in place by mid-2022 – will provide “more flexibility” for A321 production, although it adds that overall single-aisle industrial capacity at Toulouse will remain “flat”. Airbus’s A321neo has proven particularly popular, accounting for 3,255 orders – the equivalent of 45% of all orders for the re-engined A320neo family. But this has put pressure on the industrial system at Airbus owing to the introduction of new variants of the A321neo. <br/>
Airline and hotel shares fell Tuesday as fear grew about a virus that authorities say has killed 6 people and sickened 300 more, including at least 1 person in the US. The outbreak of the new type of coronavirus is believed to have started in Wuhan in central China. No US airlines fly to Wuhan, but their Chinese partner airlines do, and some passengers transfer from Chinese carriers to American ones. Investors worried that the virus could spread beyond Asia, like the SARS outbreak in 2002 which killed more than 700 people and hurt travel between the US and Asia. Shares of Hawaiian Airlines' parent fell 5.5% Tuesday. United Airlines shares dropped 4.4%, American Airlines lost 4.2%, and Delta Air Lines declined 2.7%. <br/>