Aircraft regulators to join forces to restore 737 Max to service

Bloomberg

Four of the world’s leading aircraft regulators have agreed in principle to coordinate in restoring Boeing Co’s 737 Max to service once they’re confident that technical updates and new training meet safety standards.
The tentative pact is an attempt to avoid the fractious approach taken in grounding the jet after two deadly crashes, people familiar with the discussions said. Officials from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have held discussions with their counterparts in Europe, Canada and Brazil and came away believing there is consensus on the need to act together to restore public trust in the world’s aviation-safety system.
The rising sense of cooperation suggests that other leading regulatory agencies are gaining confidence in the US process for assessing Boeing’s fix. A renewed convergence would mark a reversal from what airlines and even Boeing’s top rival have feared — a disorderly approach to recertifying the Max that would further strain ties between the FAA and European Union Aviation Safety Agency, the global standard-bearers for safety.
“We’ve been working, all of us in the industry across borders, to some degree, to get the rest of the regulators in all the other countries to return that aircraft to flight at roughly the same time,” Oscar Munoz, Chief Executive Officer of United Airlines, said at the Aspen Ideas Festival. “It’s not going to look good if one brings it up and no one else does.”
The FAA’s associate administrator for aviation safety, Ali Bahrami, met in Europe with his counterparts at other agencies, according to a person familiar with the discussions. The FAA believes that the other countries are ready to act closely with the US to lift the grounding, said the person, who wasn’t authorized to discuss the talks and asked not to be identified.

Volatile Politics
The volatile politics swirling around the Boeing jet — which includes multiple investigations and calls by some US lawmakers and foreign leaders for significant changes — mean that there is still no guarantee that there will be collaboration, the person said. Another wildcard is China, a crucial market for Boeing, and the first country that grounded the Max.
The revelation that FAA test pilots had found a new risk factor in the plane and were ordering the manufacturer to revise a flight computer highlights how fluid the situation remains. Boeing’s timeline for completing the Max software fixes has repeatedly slipped while regulators have expanded their review to include a cockpit alert that wasn’t widely operational and an extensive look at pilot training.
The company has been telling customers and others with a stake in the 737 Max’s future that it anticipates it can address the issue as well as a broader software redesign, and return the plane to service in a September time frame, said people familiar with the manufacturer’s talking points.
But the Max might not be cleared to fly until October or November, depending on the sequence of the work and additional documentation that regulators require with the latest fix, Bernstein analyst Douglas Harned said in a note to clients.