Boeing has confirmed that in January it will suspend production of its 737 MAX, the jet that has been grounded worldwide after two separate crashes killed 346 people.
Since the grounding in March, the company has continued to produce the planes while working to get approval to fly them once again. It now says it has about 400 planes in storage.
"As a result of this ongoing evaluation, we have decided to prioritize the delivery of stored aircraft and temporarily suspend production on the 737 program beginning next month," the company wrote in a statement. "During this time, it is our plan that affected employees will continue 737-related work, or be temporarily assigned to other teams in Puget Sound."
The jet manufacturer also wrote that there were no layoffs or furloughs expected along with this announcement.
The company’s stock fell Monday after a morning report from the Wall Street Journal said Boeing ($BA) would likely make an announcement today. Boeing’s board met Sunday and Monday to determine the future of the plane.
Boeing was expected to either suspend or curb future production, which are both decisions that could cost the company billions.
Last week, the Federal Aviation Administration warned Boeing its plans to fly the jet in 2019 were unrealistic and that certification of the jet may take longer than Boeing had hoped. Now, the anticipated earliest approval in February 2020 may no longer be relevant.
Production was first reduced in April and a further cut will inflate Boeing’s costs and signal to the public that Boeing is not confident in its aircraft.
Boeing previously said it may halt production if the FAA held its approval into 2020. Its current fleet, to which it has added around 40 planes a month since the jet was grounded in March, is sitting in hangars across the nation, from Tulsa, Oklahoma to Roswell, New Mexico, costing Boeing business and leaving airlines without jets they had already ordered.
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
