Details

Published: 09 April 2020

Officials will brief President Trump on Thursday afternoon on their plans for assistance to airlines

WASHINGTON—Officials will brief President Trump on Thursday afternoon on their plans for assistance to airlines, which are eligible for grants and loans as part of a $2.2 trillion economic relief package, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday.

“We hope to get to a lot of the airlines starting tomorrow and over the weekend with preliminary information,” he said in an interview with CNBC. “It is our objective to make sure that, as I’ve said, this is not a bailout, but that airlines have the liquidity to keep their workers in place.”

“That’s the next big thing we’ll be rolling out,” he added.

Excerpt from WSJ
Read the full article

Details

Published: 26 March 2020

Plans to mandate simulator training for pilots before Boeing Co. BA -6.23% ’s 737 MAX can return to service—already a time-consuming and costly undertaking—could face a further complication: personal friction between the plane maker’s staff and U.S. government officials.

Internal Boeing messages recently made public amid House and Senate investigations showed company pilots ridiculing their counterparts at the Federal Aviation Administration.

Now several of those agency experts are responsible for helping approve a version of Boeing’s updated training programs, according to industry and government officials familiar with the details.

How the two sides get along could partly determine how long it takes to get the MAX flying again, nearly a year after it was grounded world-wide following two fatal crashes that claimed 346 lives.

Excerpt from WSJ
Read the full article

Details

Published: 19 March 2020

The biggest supplier of parts for the Boeing Co. 737 MAX plans to restart limited production in March, regardless of the plane maker’s ability to win backing from regulators for the jet to resume commercial service.

Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc. plans a gradual resumption of making fuselages, engine pylons and other parts for the jet, which has been grounded world-wide since last March following the second of two fatal crashes that claimed 346 lives.

Spirit, based in Wichita, Kan., derives more than half of its revenues from the MAX, and last month announced plans to cut almost 3,200 jobs in Kansas and Oklahoma, and suspend its dividend to save money.

Excerpt from WSJ
Read the full article

Details

Published: 12 March 2020

No-repair automobiles. Self-changing diapers. Never-wilt fresh flowers. Comfortable middle seats.

Which one might actually happen? Airlines and seat manufacturers have figured out that adding an extra inch of width to the middle seat can actually improve comfort for everyone in a row.

Frontier, Spirit, Air New Zealand, Etihad, Korean Air and a dozen other airlines have been installing coach seats with a bit more width for the poor soul in the middle. And the results have surprised airlines: Comfort scores improve across the row because the passenger in the middle isn’t infringing as much on the passengers on either side.

“That additional inch of benefit has translated into making the middle seat almost like you are agnostic across the row, which is really fascinating,” Spirit chief executive Ted Christie says.

Excerpt from WSJ
Read the full article