PX: Boeing halts order

Business

AIR Niugini is unlikely to have its four Boeing 737 Max aircraft delivered in 2020 and 2021, managing director Alan Milne says.
He said Boeing had not lifted the grounding of the B737Max aircraft after defects caused two air disasters last year and this year.
He said this after an Airbus A220 team visited yesterday.
A Lion Air using the B737 Max aircraft crashed in Indonesia in October last year in which all 189 people on board were killed.
In March this year in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, another crashed, killing 157 people on board just six minutes after take-off
Air Niugini initially ordered two 737 Max aircraft to be delivered next year and another two in 2021.
“We are working very closely with Boeing. The 737 Max is still grounded,” Milne said.
“They haven’t got a short term time frame of when that may be.
“We are talking to Boeing because we have their aircraft on order.” He said they wanted to know what the best outcome for Air Niugini was.
“They are very supportive in that conversation. We won’t be getting those aeroplanes in those timeframes now so at the moment, we are trying to help Boeing and they are trying to help us.”
He said Boeing has other airlines with huge delivery orders that they were trying to manage.
“We won’t be getting the Max in 2020 or 2021.”
Milne said the A220 as well as the Embraer E195-E2 which visited Port Moresby in July were capable of handling some of the B737 Max missions
“So that is the sort of numbers that we are crunching at the moment,” Milne said.
He said Air Niugini regarded these visits as important in its decision to replace its Fokker jet fleet.
He said the Airbus A220 or the Embraer E195-E2 were possible replacements.