Indonesia Flag Carrier Seeks to Cancel Order for 49 Boeing 737 MAX Jets
March 22 2019 - 1:51AM
Dow Jones News
By Ben Otto
JAKARTA, Indonesia--Flag carrier Garuda Indonesia said it is
seeking to cancel an order for 49 Boeing Co. 737 MAX jets, saying
passengers have lost confidence in the aircraft following two
deadly crashes in recent months.
The move makes Garuda the first airline to publicly confirm
plans to cancel a 737 MAX order. The 737 MAX jets were grounded by
regulators world-wide this month in the wake of an Ethiopian
Airlines crash that killed all 157 passengers and crew on
board.
Garuda CEO I Gusti Ngurah Askhara Danadiputra said told The Wall
Street Journal that the airline sent a letter to Kevin McAllister,
head of Boeing's commercial plane division, "to say that we want to
cancel."
The letter was sent March 14, company spokesman Ikhsan Rosan
said, adding that Boeing representatives were planning to meet with
Garuda in Jakarta on March 28 "for further discussion."
Mr. Rosan said the decision to cancel "is in line with the
desires of consumers who have lost confidence in the Boeing 737 MAX
8."
A new MAX jet flown by Lion Air, Indonesia's largest airline by
fleet size, crashed shortly after takeoff from Jakarta in October
when pilots struggled with the plane's automated anti-stall system.
All 189 people aboard were killed. Investigators say the
circumstances of the Ethiopian Airlines crash have similarities to
those of the Lion Air crash. Investigations into both crashes are
ongoing.
On Thursday, a senior Boeing executive defended the company's
aircraft design and production processes and said fixes to software
linked to at least one of the crashes should be ready within
weeks.
Garuda placed an order for 50 MAX jets in 2014 and has taken
delivery of one, the airline said. The remaining 49 were scheduled
to be delivered through 2030, it said.
As of January, Boeing had delivered 350 of the 737 MAX planes
and received orders for about 5,000 more, making the MAX its most
popular plane.
I Made Sentana and Deden Sudrajat contributed to this
article.
Write to Ben Otto at ben.otto@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 22, 2019 01:36 ET (05:36 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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