According to a prominent leader in the aircraft business, Boeing may encounter stronger regulatory consequences if other production issues arise, such to the one that may have caused a door plug explosion on an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9.

“The FAA will stop (737) production” is the next major issue that Air Lease Corp. opens a new tab for. At the Airline Economics conference in Dublin on Monday, Executive Chairman Steven Udvar-Hazy made reference to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the United States to reporters.

He downplayed worries about a wider issue, claiming the incident was limited to the Renton facility south of Seattle where the jet was put together.

There were no comments available on the issue from the FAA and Boeing.

Investigators are looking into the possibility that when the aeroplane was delivered, eight weeks before to the Jan. 5 blowout that caused a partial grounding, some bolts were missing or incorrectly installed.

The FAA capped Boeing 737 manufacturing at existing levels last week, an unprecedented move.

One of the pioneers of the rapidly expanding aviation finance sector, Udvar-Hazy, asked questions at the conference and urged Boeing to demonstrate its once-heralded superiority in aircraft design, but he refrained from demanding management changes.

“I think where the Boeing board and Boeing management has not paid enough attention to is where do we go from here, what is the next generation of airplane? What will Boeing be able to produce that will be a step-change improvement in operating economics to what they have today,” he said.

“So in that respect, I fault Boeing. As far as fixing their problems, there’s enough written in the media; I don’t have to really comment on that.”

Udvar-Hazy noted that the Airbus A320neo, which was itself brought about by Canada’s ultimately unsuccessful attempt to enter the market, served as the catalyst for the original 2011 launch of the MAX. The 737 architecture that underpins both the A320neo and the MAX is a 1960s-vintage aircraft with new, more efficient engines fitted to an old airframe.

Insiders claim that although Airbus was battling with its larger A380 superjumbo and could not afford to purchase a brand-new single-aisle plane, it purposefully pushed its rival’s hand by placing a sizable order for an A320neo, forcing Boeing to consider a completely new aircraft.

Although the two compete with one another for sales, they have been responding to each other’s moves practically in lockstep for years without investing the $15 billion required to create a single-aisle plane. Recognising that a new jet is unlikely before the 2030s, both have conceded.

It was attributed to Udvar-Hazy that Airbus abandoned its intentions to build a moderate improvement in the market for larger aircraft and instead developed the new A350 in reaction to Boeing’s 787s.

However, the seasoned leasing expert claimed that the supply chain was currently unable to handle a new design due to the interruption caused by the pandemic.

He urged aircraft manufacturers to first stabilise their factories before exerting undue pressure to boost output in order to keep up with demand.

Suppliers, manufacturers, and engine producers all face “tremendous challenges,” he said.

“By way of example, we have a 787-10 that’s going to hopefully deliver in May and it was supposed to deliver in the spring of 2020, so it’s going to be four years old. We have many 737s and Airbus single-aisle aircraft that are a year late, nine months late, eight months late. That’s more the norm today.”

He cast doubt on Airbus, opens new tab plans to raise core single-aisle production to 75 a month in 2026 and said the new A321XLR model, which is part of the plan, would be 16-18 months late.

There were no comments from Airbus prior to it announcing its results scheduled for Feb 15.s

(Adapted from USNews.com)