Alaska Airlines (AS, Seattle Tacoma International) will demand at least USD150 million in compensation from Boeing (BOE, Washington National) for the losses it incurred in grounding its entire B737-9 fleet after a mid-cabin plugged exit door separated mid-flight on January 5, resulting in an explosive decompression.
After the incident, the Federal Aviation Administration - FAA enforced immediate inspections “of certain Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes before they can return to flight” and Alaska Airlines grounded its fleet of sixty-five MAX 9s, cancelling hundreds of flights for thousands of passengers.
In a conference call with analysts last week, Alaska Airlines CFO Shane Tackett estimated that shareholders would experience a minimum USD150 million impact on profits this quarter because of rebookings and paying overtime to staff, the Seattle Times reported. He added: “We fully expect to be made whole for the profit impact of the grounding.”
During safety inspections, Alaska Airlines - a Boeing-only airline since it retired its Airbus in early 2023 - discovered loose bolts on other MAX 9 aircraft, but it now expects all 65 planes to be back in full service by the end of this week. Alaska passengers can be assured “they’re going to get to where they need to go safely and on time,” Tackett said.
As for the previously anticipated delivery to Alaska of another 16 Max 9s and seven of nineteen Max 8s this year, he commented: “Our suspicion is that many of those will get delayed. But we don’t know for how long. If we don’t get them, we’ve got some work to do to make sure we maximise the results we can get with the current fleet.”
Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci told NBC News on January 23 that the carrier found “some loose bolts on many” of its B737-9s during inspections. “I’m angry. This happened to Alaska Airlines. It happened to our guests and happened to our people. And my demand on Boeing is what are they going to do to improve their quality programmes in-house.”
On January 29, The Wall Street Journal reported that the bolts that were needed to secure the Alaska Airlines exit door that blew off appear to have been missing when the aircraft left Boeing’s factory. Investigators increasingly believe that the manufacturer’s employees failed to put back the bolts when they reinstalled the door after removing it during production, a source told the newspaper.
Sought for comment, Boeing told ch-aviation: “We have let down our airline customers and are deeply sorry for the significant disruption to them, their employees, and their passengers. We are taking action on a comprehensive plan to bring these airplanes safely back to service and to improve our quality and delivery performance. We will follow the lead of the FAA and support our customers every step of the way.”
