The CEO of a leading Central American airline expects the Boeing 737 Max to be a cornerstone of his company’s future business.
“The Max, it’s going to be a great aircraft medium to long term,” Copa Airlines CEO Pedro Heilbron said Thursday. “It had very serious issues, obviously. Two accidents, to be more precise. But we know it’s going to be fixed and we have full confidence on the aircraft. But in the meantime, we’re dealing with a tough situation.”
Heilbron made the remarks during a conference call with investment analysts after releasing Copa’s first quarter results, a transcript of the call shows.
Last week, the CEO of Canada’s WestJet offered a similar endorsement of the aircraft, which was Boeing’s best seller before a second deadly 737 Max 8 crash in March. Faulty sensors and flawed flight control software are suspected as causes of the crashes. Boeing is working to upgrade software and other systems.
Boeing recently reported that the grounding has cost its own operations $1 billion and counting. The Business Journal reported in April that 737 Max production in the Renton factory had scaled back from 52 to 42 planes per month.
Panama-based Copa has six 737 Max 9 aircraft in its fleet, and Heilbron said another seven Max 9s are scheduled for delivery during 2019. Max 9 jets are a longer version of the Max 8 aircraft with more seats.
Copa’s six 737 Max jets are grounded along with the rest of the world’s fleet following the tragedies.
Heilbron said Copa employees have worked hard to minimize flight disruptions caused by Max groundings. Despite canceling and delaying flights, Copa’s finances have also held up well, he said.
“We are managing it the best way we can, and our team has done a great job so far in minimizing that impact,” Heilbron said.
Copa plans to keep 737 Max jets from flying until July 31.
“By the end of May, we should know if the July date is the right one, or if we need to extend it,” Heilbron said. “If it can fly before, we’ll fly it before even if it would be hard to add back the flights that were canceled.”
He said Copa would fly the jet between Panama and San Francisco “and markets like those” if the grounding is lifted early.
