If the global grounding of its 737 Max jet planes continues for much longer, Boeing would be forced to halt production of the planes, the United States airplane maker has warned. The troubles caused by the grounding of the planes resulted in Boeing reporting its largest ever quarterly loss of $3.4bn for the second quarter of 2019.

Boeing would seriously contemplate either significantly reducing or completely shutting down of production of the 737 Max completely if the roadblocks with the regulators worldwide continue, the company said.

However confidence about the planes being able to fly again by October was expressed by Boeing chief Dennis Muilenburg.

“As our efforts to support the 737 Max’s safe return to service continue, we will continue to assess our production plans,” Muilenburg told investors in a conference call. “Should our estimate of the anticipated return to service change, we might need to consider possible further rate reductions or other options, including a temporary shutdown of the Max production,” he added.

Following linking of some issues of the 737 Max models with an Ethiopian Airlines flight crash that killed 157 people, all the entire fleet of Boeing’s flagship 737 Max planes were grounded globally. Another fatal crash involving the same Boeing 737 Max model operated by Lion Air had taken place five months prior to the Ethiopian Airlines crash in which all 189 people on board were killed.

While a detailed investigation into the crashes is continuing, Boeing on its part has been trying to create a fix to the software issue in the Mcas anti-stall flight control system on the 737 Max models. Another fault in the plane was recently revealed by the US Federal Aviation Administration.

The fix for both the issues is still awaiting approval from regulators in many of the 150 coutnries where Boeing has customers.

Weekly technical calls with operators of the 737 Max was being held by Boeing, said Muilenberg, while the company has managed to test the modified software in 225 flight simulator sessions so far.

“These are challenging times, first and foremost, for the families and loved ones who are affected by these recent events, and also for our dedicated people, who work tirelessly to deliver on our mission to connect, protect, explore and inspire the world, all with a relentless focus on quality and safety and doing so with the utmost integrity,” he stressed.

“This is a defining moment for Boeing and we’re committed to coming through this challenging time better and stronger as a company.”

Muilenburg said that the company had earlier reduction production rate of the 737 Max planes from 52 to 42 aircraft per month following the two crashes.

As an effect of the measure by the planemaker, it now has to pay more for than earlier because the price of such parts is determined according to the volume purchased.

Boeing’s cash flow and profit margins have also been hit because of the suspension of deliveries of new 737 Max planes to airlines.

(Adapted from BBC.com)

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