Carriers keen on new Airbus jet still hankering for Boeing rival

Bloomberg

JetBlue Airways Corp. and Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA, regarded as likely buyers for Airbus SE’s proposed A321 XLR jetliner, urged Boeing Co. to go ahead with a rival model that they say will have capabilities the European plane can’t match.
The discount carriers said in Paris that the anticipated launch of the extra long-range version of Airbus’s A321neo at the Paris Air Show next week won’t damp their interest in a potential plane Boeing is looking at developing, called the new mid-market airplane or NMA. Both airlines are interested in deploying the jets on routes between Europe and the US.
Boeing is delaying any commitment to the NMA — dubbed the 797 by some industry observers — while it studies the ramifications of the grounding of its best-selling 737 Max model. The narrow-body workhorse, idled following two crashes in five months, competes with Airbus’s A320 family of planes, of which the XLR would be the biggest, longest-range version.
“I think it’s a great idea, I think it’s a gap in the market and I think Boeing should get on and start doing it,” JetBlue Chief Executive Officer Robin Hayes said of the NMA in an interview at the Paris Air Forum, adding that the US jet would offer a range advantage “that isn’t compensated by other airplanes.”
At the same time, Hayes said his company has looked at the XLR and “been a big advocate to persuade Airbus to build the airplane.” JetBlue said it could use the model to fly about 600 miles further than the LR model it has on order depending on the make-up of the cabin and number of passengers on board. Some LR commitments could be converted to the XLR, he said.
Bjorn Kjos, Hayes’s counterpart at Norwegian Air, speaking at the same Paris event, described the NMA as an “interesting aircraft” that could tap routes with an eight- to 10-hour flight time not well served by current offerings, though any purchase decision would be “dependent on the price.”
He said the XLR as planned is “a beautiful plane,” but presents issues for carriers operating from slot-constrained airports “because of the need for bigger aircraft.” It may therefore be best-suited to airlines with a large portfolio of slots, he said.
Norwegian primarily used the larger Boeing 787 for long-haul operations at locations such as London Gatwick, one of the world’s busiest single-runway hubs, though Kjos said the XLR would be a good fit for routes such as Scandinavia to India.
Boeing envisages the NMA as a replacement for its defunct 757 and for the 767, which is currently in production only as a freighter. The plane would slot in below the 787 and compete with Airbus’s A330neo, though by building the XLR the Toulouse, France-based company could limit the market for the US plane and make it a more marginal proposition.

Boeing updates 737 simulators
Bloomberg

Boeing Co. is updating simulators for 737 Next-Generation aircraft after research conducted in two fatal 737 Max crashes revealed that they don’t accurately replicate the force required during a procedure critical for the pilots responding to both accidents.
Pilots training on how to manually move the nose up or down on 737 NGs, the models that preceded the introduction of the Max, wouldn’t have felt accurate forces, the company said in an emailed statement.
The procedure requires cockpit crews to crank two wheels in the cockpit. The company announced it also was fixing its 737 Max simulators last month.
Moving the so-called manual trim wheels is a critical part of the emergency procedure needed to respond to the malfunction that pilots in Indonesia and Ethiopia faced before crashing. They were supposed to shut off an electric trim motor and make adjustments with a hand crank.
“We are taking this step as part of our effort over the last several months to closely re-examine and improve our simulator capability,” the company said.