Boeing's 737 MAX manufacturing issue likely to be a setback for Air India, Akasa Air: Report

US planemaker Boeing has detected issue with manufacturing of its 737 MAX jets, which will hit fleet expansion plans of Air India, Akasa Air, said a report on Monday. 

CNBC TV18 reported that Boeing expects lower near-term 737 MAX deliveries due to manufacturing issue and that it is in contact with customers concerning the delivery schedule.

It may be recalled that Air India's mega deals in February for 470 planes included 190 737 MAX jets too.

Akasa Air, a new airline on the block, has taken delivery of 17 Boeing 737 MAX planes out of a total order of 72 jets to be delivered by March 2027.

The report said that a supplier used non-conforming fittings in the aft fuselage section. 

"The manufacturing issue is likely to affect significant number of undelivered 737 MAX planes," the report said. 

Earlier this month, Boeing indicated that near-term deliveries of the 737 MAX will slow as the company grapples with a new manufacturing problem involving fuselages built by Spirit AeroSystems.

However, CEO Dave Calhoun said Boeing’s long term guidance for the 2025-2026 timeframe, which calls for the company to achieve about $10 billion in free cash flow and to produce about 50 737 MAXs per month, remains unchanged.

Boeing is expected to further detail the fallout of the problem during first quarter earnings on April 26.

Boeing has sought to ramp up output of the MAX following two fatal plane crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people and prompted it to curtail production until it fixed safety issues unrelated to the current manufacturing problem.

The current problems are unrelated to the earlier trouble, which forced the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to ground the MAX in 2019 after the two fatal crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia. Federal investigations showed that problem was caused by a faulty stall-prevention system known as MCAS, and the MAX was cleared to resume flights in late 2020.

With inputs from Reuters