Due to a new software issue that has posed difficulties for the Original Equipment Manufacturer, some Boeing 737 MAX deliveries may be delayed by up to a year (OEM).
Boeing’s Option Selection Software has an issue, according to a recent joint investigation by Leeham News and Airfinance Journal (OSS). If an aircraft is moved to a different airline than it was originally planned, the software is used to reconfigure the computer programs on the aircraft because it may be necessary to change the configuration of the cockpit displays and related equipment.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), this is a safety concern. Aircraft that are already in use by airlines, however, are unaffected by this issue.
Also, it has been claimed that the Boeing 787 experiences the similar software-related issue. Particularly those slated for airlines located in China, Boeing has a sizable number of 737 MAX aircraft that have not yet been delivered.
The kind of aircraft has 199 undeliverable orders to consumers worldwide, according to data from planespotters.net. Some of the frames first flew on March 5, 2023, while others, like the B-208J bound for Shenzhen Airlines, did so on January 11, 2019.
China was among the first nations to order the 737 MAX to be grounded after the second fatal disaster of the model occurred in Ethiopia in March 2019. The previous incident occurred in October 2018 when a Boeing 737 MAX operated by Lion Air crashed in Indonesia. 346 individuals died as a result of the two accidents.
The final report of the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX tragedy received more criticism from the NTSB.
Through the course of 2023, Chinese-based airlines gradually began putting their 737 MAXs back into service; in January 2023, China Southern Airlines became the first airline to do so. The most recent was Air China, which started using the type again on February 28, 2023.
There are currently 12 737 MAXs flying in China with four different airlines, excluding Air China, according to statistics from ch-aviation.com. The airlines are China Southern, Lucky Air, Hainan Airlines, and Fuzhou Airlines.
The most recent airline in China to resume using the Boeing 737 MAX is Air China.
“We have more aircraft on the tarmac in China to put back into service, just as we did here in the US before we began any deliveries of any sort, and I’m not going to guess going forward when deliveries may or may not start,” said David Calhoun, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Boeing, during the company’s Q4 2022 financial results earnings call.
Brian West, the Original Equipment Manufacturer’s (OEM) CFO and Executive Vice President, continued, “We concluded the year with 250 MAX airplanes in inventory, 30 of which were -7 and -10s and we had 138 for clients in China (OEM).
The FAA doesn’t speak about ongoing certification concerns.
