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Virgin Australia delays Boeing 737 MAX order
SYDNEY, April 30, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Virgin Australia said on Tuesday it had
delayed delivery of its order of 48 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft over safety
concerns, following two deadly crashes.
The 737 MAX has been grounded worldwide since mid-March following the
crash of an Ethiopian Airlines flight and an earlier Lion Air crash in
Indonesia, which killed a total of 346 passengers and crew.
Virgin Australia said in a statement that it was deferring delivery of its
first batch of planes from November 2019 to July 2021.
“Safety is always the number one priority for Virgin Australia. As we have
previously stated, we will not introduce any new aircraft to the fleet unless
we are completely satisfied with its safety,” Virgin Chief Executive Paul
Scurrah said.
“We are confident in Boeing’s commitment to returning the 737 MAX to
service safely and as a long-term partner of Boeing, we will be working with
them through this process.”
Virgin also said it was shifting some of its orders of 737 MAX 8s to Max
10s while keeping the total at 48 planes.
The Virgin announcement comes as Boeing executives faced several
shareholder challenges Monday at its annual general meeting, with the crisis
raising questions about whether the aerospace giant put profits ahead of
safety to market a new narrow-body plane.
The US firm has said both crashes involved erroneous information generated
by the anti-stall system.
But it has defended the design of the MAX saying multiple factors can
contribute to catastrophic accidents.
Boeing expects the Federal Aviation Administration to conduct a test
flight of a software fix for the anti-stall system soon.
BSS/AFP/MSY/0959 hrs