The Most Important Story in Airlines in 2019
Skift Take
The grounding of the Boeing 737 Max worldwide may be the most consequential aviation event in the past decade. Boeing is still confident the plane will fly again. But when?
After two Boeing 737 Max airplanes crashed within five months, Boeing’s leaders may have thought they could deny responsibility and skirt the fallout unscathed. They were wrong.
After the second crash, in March 2019, regulators worldwide grounded the airplane. First, Boeing executives downplayed the severity of their issues, suggesting regulators had banned Max flights more from an abundance of caution than real concern. Within a couple of months, however, the public learned Boeing had made serious errors in its design. Perhaps worse, Boeing might have known of its mistakes but may have rushed the airplane to completion to appease airlines and keep pace with Airbus.
All that would have bee
