Vietjet's $20 billion order for Boeing 737 MAX crafts falls through

Boeing will discontinue the production of 737 MAX jets following the decision of shareholders

Leaders of US-based Boeing submitted the option to the year-end shareholders' meeting at Chicago on December 15. Accordingly, the manufacturer asked shareholders whether to cut or completely halt the production of its 737 MAX jets due to the huge impact of the two crashes claiming 346 lives.

Indeed, after 157 people died in February’s Ethiopian Airlines crash and 189 died in an Indonesian Lion Air crash in October last year, the aircraft came under a global ban since March.

In April, Boeing cut one-fifth of the production to 42 jets per month, resulting in billions of US dollars in damage. The US manufacturer wished to raise the number to 57 per month next year, however, due to the pressure from the tragedies and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), halting the production of 737 MAX jets was unavoidable. As a result, Boeing will lose billions of US dollars by 2020.

The FAA has just revealed intentions of sanctioning the US-based aircraft manufacturer for $3.9 million for not halting the assembly of 130 Boeing 737 planes. The authority also stated that Boeing did not fully supervise its suppliers to ensure compliance with quality standards. In addition, Boeing submitted its application to license the operation of the aircraft to the FAA while knowing full well the planes failed durability tests before.

Vietjet is mulling over a decision to pull its $20 billion order for Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.

In a previous response to VIR, a representative of Vietjet said, “We are following the Boeing 737 MAX case and will decide whether we will put the aircraft into commercial operation after receiving the official conclusion and guidance from the global aviation authorities as well as the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam.”

Echoing this view, the representative of Bamboo Airways, which has already ordered 30 Boeing 787-9 planes, previously revealed to VIR that it has no intentions to continue with its other order of 737 MAX planes and plans to buy further Airbus 321 Neo jets.

In early November, Bamboo Airways received its first Airbus 321 Neo plane. The airline in March reached a $6.3 billion agreement with Airbus to buy 26 planes.