Ethiopian Carrier Rethinks 737 Max Purchase, Citing 'Stigma'

[brooklynite]

Source: Bloomberg

Ethiopian Airlines Group is reconsidering its order for 25 additional 737 Max jetliners from Boeing Co., in part because of the “stigma’’ surrounding the aircraft involved in two fatal air disasters in five months -- one of them an Ethiopian Airlines flight.

Tewolde GebreMariam, the state-owned carrier’s chief executive, spoke in an interview with Bloomberg News a day after Ethiopian officials released a preliminary report on the accident that killed 157 people last month shortly after take off from Addis Ababa and concluded it suffered the same equipment failure as a Lion Air 737 that crashed off Indonesia in October.

“We may reach the decision: Look, we just had a very tragic accident a few weeks ago, and customers still have the accident in their mind. So it will be a hard sell for us to convince our customers,’’ he said.

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-05/ethiopian-airlines-rethinking-737-max-purchases-citing-stigma

[matt819]

1. The stigma

Plus, it falls out the sky unexpectedly and kills people.

[Sherman A1]

2. Good

Boeing needs to scrap this aircraft and reimburse the airlines who purchased it.

[oldsoftie]

3. The result of trying to cram 10 lbs of shit in a 5 lb bag, as my dad used to say.

[Chemisse]

4. Maybe they should concede that moving the engine forward was a bad idea

And that all the changes they had to make to accommodate that, increased the risks to a degree that is just unacceptable.

[Maxheader]

5. To use the new fuel efficient engines..

Which is/was a huge selling point for the aircraft...

Because of its bigger size, Boeing had to change the mounting point of the engine. In short, they put them further forward and much higher on the wings ...

[Chemisse]

6. Ahhh. I did not know they were more fuel efficient.

And therefore larger.

The change makes more sense now.