‘Max’ branding removed from 737 jet destined for Ryanair
A 737 MAX plane due to be delivered to Ryanair has been photographed with a different name on its nose at Boeing’s factory in Seattle.
All 737 Maxs were grounded in March following the crashes of Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air flights that killed 346 passengers and crew.
Photographs circulating on Twitter yesterday showed a 737 Max plane in Ryanair livery with the name 737-8200 instead. Ryanair has more than 100 of the aircraft on order, while British Airways owner IAG plans to buy 200.
Donald Trump tweeted in April that he would rebrand the plane with a new name as “no product has suffered like this one”.
Ryanair and Boeing both declined to comment.
The photos emerged after officials at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), as well as pilots’ union chiefs, said they were now not expecting the aircraft to fly again until January. The two crashes within five months of each other were linked to a system designed to make the aircraft handle in a similar way to earlier versions of the 737.
Boeing has been racing to find a fix but last month the FAA said it had identified a new “potential risk” in the system, which is now being blamed by insiders for further delays to the 737 Max returning to the skies.
Airlines are understood to have been privately guided by Boeing that the 737 Max could return to service by late summer, but the latest development appears to quash such hopes.
The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the latest issue, said the situation is “fluid” with no firm timeline as problems mount up.
Over the weekend American Airlines said it would not put the 737 Max back into its flying schedule until November, two months later than its previous forecast, following similar actions by rivals Southwest Airlines and United Airlines.
American has 24 of the 737 Max aircraft in its fleet, making it the second-largest in the US market behind Southwest.
Donald Trump tweeted in April that he would rebrand the plane as ‘no product has suffered like this one’