Will Boeing Ever Recover From the 737 Max Debacle?

(Bloomberg Businessweek) -- After grounding their Boeing 737 Max fleets for most of 2019, airlines expect to resume flying the once-hot-selling plane in early 2020. While that’s good news for carriers that have ordered almost 5,000 of the fuel-sipping jetliners, a big question remains: Will travelers be nervous about flying an airplane involved in two highly publicized fatal crashes?

Airlines with the 737 Max must convince many customers that the aircraft has been appropriately modified, tested, and certified safe. A monthly survey by UBS of 1,000 people in the U.S. finds that among those who plan to fly, about 15% say they’ll never travel on a Max. The same survey, however, finds that around 65% say they never or seldom check the type of aircraft they’re flying on.

Airlines may take comfort in the poll result, “but that has changed in the short term,” says Michael Gordon, chief executive officer of Group Gordon, which specializes in crisis communications. “It’s not that people care per se which plane they’re flying on, they just want to know if they’re flying on the 737 Max or not. I think consumers will think twice before flying on that plane.”

Regulators grounded the Max on March 13 following crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed 346 people when the plane’s electronic controls pushed it into steep dives after receiving erroneous sensor data. British tabloids dubbed it the “DEATH JET,” and Boeing on Oct. 18 was further beset by reports that one of its test pilots had difficulties handling the Max during a simulator exercise in 2016. Boeing replaced Kevin McAllister, its commercial planes chief, on Oct. 22.

The hundreds of fatalities and persistent headlines about the jet’s tangled development and certification history complicate carriers’ efforts to return the plane to their fleets. While the Federal Aviation Administration is expected to wrap up its review this fall or winter, regulators in Europe and China plan to offer their own assessments of the safety of the 737 Max before allowing the plane to fly in their airspace. Delays in those approvals may put other nations behind the FAA’s schedule. Time is money for Boeing Co., which faces more than $9 billion in costs from the grounding, including a $4.9 billion after-tax charge.

In the U.S., nervous flyers can be certain of one thing: The three U.S. airlines that fly the Max will make it abundantly clear to passengers if that aircraft is scheduled for their flight. “We’ll be open and honest with our customers that they’re flying on a Max,” says Ross Feinstein, a spokesman for American Airlines Group Inc., which has 24 Max planes and is scheduled to get 76 more. People booking a trip on the carrier’s website will see “Boeing 737Max 8 Passenger” below the flight time if it applies.

United Airlines Holdings Inc. will notify customers repeatedly if they’re booked on a Max—from the time of ticket purchase, to check-in, and in the boarding area—to separate concerned passengers from the plane as early as possible. Like American, United will rebook those passengers without a change penalty and won’t use the Max for swaps in cases where it has to replace an aircraft. United and American declined to say how long they’ll continue the two practices once the Max returns to service.

After the resumption, United will “explain to our customers and employees how our Max fleet will be put back into service and why we have the highest confidence that it is safe to do so,” spokesman Frank Benenati says.

Southwest Airlines Co. hasn’t finished its public communications plans for the Max’s return but will be “completely open and transparent with our customers and employees,” spokeswoman Brandy King says.

To date, Boeing has delivered 387 Max aircraft to 48 airlines or leasing companies globally, with more than 4,500 in its order backlog. American, United, and Canada’s WestJet Airlines Ltd., have removed the Max from their schedules into January. Southwest and Air Canada don’t expect to fly their Max planes before February.

Boeing bears the largest role in convincing the public that the Max is safe to fly, although airlines, their employees, and the FAA will also play a part, says Richard Levick, CEO of Levick Inc., a public relations firm that specializes in brand and crisis recovery. Travelers will “have to see it, hear it, hear it from third parties, hear it from regulators, hear it from the crews, hear it from friends who have flown the plane,” he says. “They have to hear it from the airlines over and over until it’s boring.”

Consultant Gordon says airlines with the Max should have their CEOs and other top managers flying on the plane with their families to show confidence in its safety. Still, he says it will take time to calm flyers. “Two years feels like the cycle of safe plane-riding” without another accident before consumers will forget, he says.

Southwest and American say they’ll fly the Max with executives and others—likely government officials and members of the media—before returning the planes to commercial service. The idea is the more that would-be travelers see the aircraft flying, the more comfortable they’ll become with it. “We’re not going to place ourselves or our passengers on an airplane until we know it’s safe,” says Dennis Tajer, spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association at American.
 
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To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Ellis at jellis27@bloomberg.net

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