The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is increasing its oversight of United Airlines (UA, Chicago O'Hare) to ensure “that it is complying with safety regulations; identifying hazard and mitigating risk; and effectively managing safety” after nearly a dozen incidents.
The FAA told ch-aviation that certification activities in progress may be allowed to continue, "but future projects may be delayed based on findings from oversight. The FAA will also initiate an evaluation of United Airlines under the provisions of the Certificate Holder Evaluation Process."
Reuters added the FAA may not approve new plans or routes in the future, based on its findings. Meanwhile, United said in a memo seen by ch-aviation that employees would see a greater FAA presence “in our operation as they begin to review some of our work processes, manuals, and facilities.”
Both parties have agreed "that we need to take an even closer look at multiple areas of our operation to ensure we are doing all we can to promote and drive safety compliance," said United.
The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) said this is an opportunity to identify areas of improvement in the carrier’s operation, identify changes to mitigate operational risk, and that it is currently unclear if there will be any pause to United’s certification activities.
United Airlines has suffered several incidents in the last few weeks, including a B737-8 runway excursion at Houston Intercontinental, a B777-200ER that lost a tire while climbing out of San Francisco, and an external panel found missing from an aircraft after it landed in Medford, among others. None caused any injuries or deaths.
Additionally, United’s growth is set to be flattened by Boeing’s quality control issues, impacting expected deliveries. The carrier has already removed the B737-10 from its internal fleet plan, resulting in 80 fewer airframes to be delivered this year.
