The FAA said on Thursday that it had opened an investigation into whether Boeing failed to ensure that its 737 Max 9 plane was safe and manufactured to match the design approved by the agency. The FAA said the investigation stemmed from the loss of a fuselage panel of a Boeing 737 Max 9 operated by Alaska Airlines shortly after it took off on Friday from Portland, Ore., leaving a hole in the side of the passenger cabin. The plane returned to Portland for an emergency landing. “This incident should have never happened, and it cannot happen again,” the agency said. In a letter to Boeing dated Wednesday, the FAA said that after the Portland incident, it was notified of additional issues with other Max 9 planes. The letter does not detail what other issues were reported to the agency. Alaska and United Airlines, which operate most of the Max 9s in use in the United States, said on Monday that they had discovered loose hardware on the panel when conducting preliminary inspections on their planes. The new investigation is the latest setback for Boeing, which is one of just two suppliers of large planes for most airlines. The company has struggled to regain the public’s trust after two crashes of 737 Max 8 jetliners, in Indonesia in 2018 and Ethiopia in 2019, killed a total of 346 people. The NTSB is investigating why the Max 9 panel, also known as a door plug, flew off. The board is trying to determine whether bolts that would have kept the panel from moving and opening were missing or installed incorrectly. The plug is placed where an emergency exit would be if the plane had the maximum number of seats. No one was seriously hurt in the incident, but aviation experts have said that if the panel had blown out when the plane was at a higher altitude, the consequences could have been much more severe. Passengers and flight attendants would have been walking around and may have been unable to get back to their seats to put on oxygen masks and secure their seatbelts. <br/>
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The chair of the Senate Commerce Committee on Thursday asked the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to initiate a new audit of Boeing’s production systems after a cabin panel blowout on a Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 last week. Senator Maria Cantwell said recent accidents and incidents "call into question Boeing’s quality control. In short, it appears that FAA’s oversight processes have not been effective in ensuring that Boeing produces airplanes that are in condition for safe operation."<br/>
More travelers are checking the model of an aircraft before booking flights after a midair cabin blowout forced a new Alaska Airlines-operated Boeing jet to make an emergency landing and grounded more than 170 planes, several travel operators said. A piece of fuselage tore off the left side of the 737 MAX 9 jetliner operated by Alaska Airlines as it climbed following takeoff on Friday, forcing pilots to turn back and land safely with all 171 passengers and six crew on board. U.S. regulators have since grounded 171 737 MAX 9 planes for safety checks while Alaska and United Airlines, which together have 70% of the 737 MAX 9 fleet, have canceled hundreds of flights this week. The Alaska crew have been praised for swiftly landing the plane, with only minor injuries to those on board. But photos on social media showing oxygen masks deployed and a portion of the aircraft's side wall missing, as well provisional checks turning up loose bolts in some grounded planes, stirred concerns it would dent passenger confidence in Boeing planes. Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun on Tuesday acknowledged mistakes and told staff he and many customers had been "shaken to the bone." Boeing must work to earn their confidence, he said. On Thursday, Ryanair CE passengers had not shown any concern about flying on Boeing 737 aircraft since the grounding. Even so, Booking Holdings-owned Kayak said it has seen a spike in the use of a filter on its website that allows customers to screen by plane model following Friday's incident. It has moved the filter up on its website to make it more prominent and added the ability to check specifically for the 737 MAX 8 and MAX 9 models. MAX 8 aircraft are still in service. Internova Travel Group, which represents more than 100,000 travel advisors worldwide, has also seen more queries about plane models.<br/>
Services that protect Canadians travelling by air say many of the passengers on these flights don’t know what they’re entitled to. “Our goal is to empower passengers to know their rights, to know how to enforce their rights," Gabor Lukacs, President, Air Passenger Rights said. Lukacs runs not-for-profit group Air Passenger Rights. His team of volunteers take on the public’s complaints and try to steer them in the right direction for compensation for things like damaged luggage, delayed or cancelled flights. “The vast majority of the cases we are seeing in the group are very troubling where the airlines are blatantly disregarding the laws," Lukacs said. In 2008, Lukacs started challenging airlines legally. He eventually registered his not-for-profit in 2019. He also recognized what he calls a breakthrough moment of how airlines treated passengers during the pandemic. “The airline is trying to misappropriate passenger’s money, not giving them refunds for flights that the airlines themselves cancelled. There was this massive public outcry and this sense of large scale injustice," Lukacs said. Lukacs also advocates to the federal government for policy changes and has testified to several courts and tribunals. He hopes eventually the majority of the public will know their general rights for travelling. “This is just the beginning. Of course my goal would be to make myself obsolete," Lukacs said. Lukacs says he enjoys the not-for-profit approach to help focus on major and unique cases, and to continue staying involved in advocacy. He would like to see some type of Canadian air passenger rights framework similar to the European Union’s protection regime. There’s also for profit groups trying to help passengers. Airfairness officially launched in May 2023. It’s aimed at helping customers understand what they can claim and navigate how to do it.<br/>
Saudi Arabia’s government is building on its plans to enhance private involvement in the kingdom’s airports, offering a concession for the development of Abha airport. Abha is located in the Asir region, which lies in the southwest of the country. Saudi Arabia’s airports holding company Matarat says the concession is being offered in co-operation with the National Center for Privatization. It will take the form of a 30-year build-transfer-operate agreement, at the centre of which is a new terminal capable of handling 13m annual passengers, compared with the current capacity for 1.5m. This terminal will be scheduled to open by 2028, states Matarat. The government is seeking expressions of interest in the Abha airport project, which it says will be a distinctive landmark, by 31 January.<br/>
Thailand's aviation industry welcomes eight new carriers this year, creating pressure on players new and old to differentiate themselves from the heightened competition. Patee Sarasin, CEO of startup Really Cool Airlines, said his company "will redefine the image of the aviation industry marked by the identical services found at each carrier." Really Cool Airlines is focusing on international flights. The company plans regular service from Bangkok to the Tokyo area's Narita Airport and an airport serving the Japanese city of Nagoya as soon as June. Direct flights to Singapore, Hong Kong and the country of Georgia are also in the works. The carrier looks to distinguish itself through service perks because it would be at a disadvantage in competing on an equal footing with rival airlines, Patee said. Really Cool Airlines will offer to take luggage from passengers at the point of departure and send it directly to their hotel at the destination. The company plans to provide transportation services from airports and arrange for lodging as well. Through the mobile app, customers can voice the destination and dates to an avatar, and receive options on the screen. Really Cool Airlines targets turning a profit in 2025 and going public by 2027, Patee said. Fellow newcomer M-Landarch Airlines will limit service to southern Thailand near the Malaysian border. The hub will be established in Hat Yai, a city that serves as the regional center. Flights to cities in the service area will take less than an hour, slashing travel time from the three to five hours reportedly needed for land routes. The area served by M-Landarch is dotted with magnificent mosques and home to a large Muslim population. The region also boasts the longest skywalk in Southeast Asia, overlooking mountainous terrain. Story has more.<br/>
Airbus reported record annual jet orders and confirmed an 11% rise in 2023 deliveries on Thursday, maintaining the top manufacturing spot against rival Boeing for a fifth year. As airlines scrambled to renew fleets last year, Airbus said it had won 2,319 gross orders and 2,094 net orders after cancellations. Confirming a Reuters report, it said it delivered 735 airplanes, leaving its order backlog at 8,598. Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury said the planemaker, which analysts say made a slow start to the year as it wrestled with tight supply chains, had seen "increased flexibility and capability" in its industrial system. He added that he was confident Airbus would meet a delivery target of 75 A320 jets a month in 2026, with ten assembly lines active for the A320 family. "The situation in the supply chain is still tense. It's improving, it's getting better, but we are also flying higher as we continue to ramp up in 2024," Faury told a news conference.<br/>
Airbus executives said on Thursday they were confident they would meet a delivery target of 75 A320 jets a month in 2026 as they said they would continue to get through a company backlog of 8,600 planes. CE Guillaume Faury added there were still supply chain issues but the situation was improving, as the planemaker has seen a return in the market for widebody planes and an overall recovery in business since the pandemic.<br/>
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International airport CE Candace McGraw has begun a two-year term as chair of Airports Council International (ACI) World, meaning both airline and airport global trade bodies are chaired by a women for the first time. McGraw, who succeeds Oman Airports CE Sheik Aimen bin Al Hosni in the role, has served as vice-chair for the past two years and is the first female chair of the airports association. In June last year, RwandaAir CE Yvonne Makolo became the first woman to chair the board of governors of airline association IATA. McGraw says: ”Nothing is more important to me than the future of this industry. Whether thinking about the long-term needs of ACI, how we can be a strong partner in the global aviation industry, or what we can do to accelerate the adoption of practices to ensure sustainable aviation, we are stronger as one.” ACI World director general Luis Felipe de Oliveira, who will step down at the end of this year, says: “She is the first woman to chair ACI World and we are very proud of that considering her brilliant career and contribution to the ACI federation.” Munich airport CE Jost Lammers has succeeded McGraw as vice-chair of ACI World.<br/>