Who's *Really* to Blame for the 737 MAX?

in 2011 American Airlines placed what was at the time the largest aircraft order in aviation history comprised of 460 single-aisle aircraft at a whopping 38 billion dollars in list price this deal was set to completely overhaul Americans domestic fleet however while the number of planes was staggering the type of planes that American ordered was the real shocker and the ramifications of the deal ultimately led Boeing to build the 737 max so does that mean that American Airlines is to blame for the creation of this trouble jet let me explain [Music] in order to understand the drivers behind Americans record-setting deal we need to take a closer look at the history of the 737s main competitor the Airbus a320 while the plane is ubiquitous today back in 1999 the program was a major underdog while Airbus had already cemented itself as a commercial aviation powerhouse up to that point it had delivered just 1/3 as many a320s as boeing had 737s but in that year the a320 program pulled off its first truly massive coup jetblue a brand new airline headed by airline visionary David Neil Minh decided to place an order of 48 a320 Jets originally JetBlue didn't want the a320 they wanted the 737 however Neel Minh encountered resistance during negotiations with Boeing the sales folks over at Boeing believe JetBlue had no intention of purchasing the a320 and as such they played hardball and repeatedly rejected JetBlue's requests for a discounted order now Boeing eventually ended up offering the 737 to JetBlue any discounted price but not until the airline had already been extensively courted by Airbus and recognized the value of their planes by the time Boeing was willing to negotiate the damage had been done feeling slighted JetBlue went with the a320 since then the airline has placed an additional three hundred four orders for jets in that aircraft family and has never once bought a Boeing airplane this deal was the first sign that Boeing was not properly giving Airbus its do that disrespect continued when Airbus decided to launch its a320neo Airbus launched this revamped version of the plane in 2010 just a year or so removed from the low point of the financial crisis while the global economy was still trying to recover Airbus saw robust long-term growth in commercial aviation and stagnation amongst its competition thus they debuted a new version of the a320 which featured brand new engines and new winglet technology theoretically this would make the plane 20% more efficient than the 737ng however Boeing dismissed this new challenger Boeing's chief of commercial airplanes at the time Jim Albaugh told his employees that Airbus was likely to go way over budget on the program and at the end of the day it wasn't a plane that Airlines really wanted given that Boeing was also intensely focused on ramping up 787 production at the time all boss suggested that Boeing abide its time and wait until the 2020 is to launch an all-new single-aisle airplane this is where American Airlines comes into play around this time American was looking to reshape its fleet with a new fuel efficient aircraft up to that point American Airlines had only ever ordered American built Jets and it was widely believed that that trend would continue however much like they did with JetBlue in the late 90s Airbus mounted an all-out charm offensive Airbus's chief of sales Jim Lahey frequently visited and dined with American Airlines executives meanwhile Boeing kind of just stood pat making neither a real effort to win Americans business nor design a new plane to compete with the a320neo over the course of the next 12 months the possibility of American placing an all Airbus boarder continued to grow and eventually Airbus came to Boeing with an ultimatum either commit to building a revamped 737 to compete with a neo or completely lose out on their business having been such an customer for decades Boeing caved to Americans demands what resulted was the 737 max in a very short period of time Boeing went from denying the viability of the neo to essentially copying its formula the max also sported new engines and winglets ensuring it would be better positioned to match the Neos fuel burn American would go on to place an order for 460 single-aisle aircraft 260 of those would come from Airbus and 200 of those would come from Boeing while Boeing managed to snag a share of the deal it was widely seen as a massive loss Boeing leadership was now fully in tune with the gravity of the situation if a long time loyal customer like American went with Airbus others could follow what resulted was a rushed development process Boeing tried to bring the Mac's to market as quickly as possible while also pushing the limits of the airframe to maximize efficiency while they ultimately succeeded in doing both concessions were made when it came to safety and sadly we all know what happened as a result so was American Airlines to blame for the 737 max no it was a combination of poor foresight and hubris on the part of Boeing's executive leadership team at the time however this deal and American Airlines will forever be inextricably linked with the 737 max if you learn something new today leave a like and subscribe to keep learning and until I see you again don't forget to look up

Channel: Coby Explanes

Views: 199,346

Keywords: American Airlines, American 737, American 737 MAX, 737 MAX, Boeing, Boeing 737, Boeing 737 MAX, American a320, a320neo, Airbus a320, Airbus a320neo, 737max, Jetblue, Jetblue a320, Boeing vs Airbus

Id: gx3Pn_yvx8w

Length: 7min 0sec (420 seconds)

Published: Sat May 30 2020