The controversy over Boeing’s bestselling 737 MAX and its impact in India | Data

Boeing's 737 MAX faces setbacks as cabin panel blows out, leading to emergency landings and grounding of planes.

Boeing’s best-selling 737 MAX aircraft experienced yet another setback last Friday when a cabin panel blew out of an Alaska Airlines plane, compelling the pilots to make an emergency landing at Portland airport in the U.S.

The incident happened in a 737 MAX 9, one of the aircraft’s four variants. Soon after, the operators grounded many of the 737 MAX 9 planes. An inspection ordered just before the accident also led to reports of missing components in two variants.

The U.S. is impacted the most by this incident, as it is the biggest customer of the 737 MAX planes, particularly the 737 MAX 9. Alaska Airlines, which operates from the U.S., grounded all 65 of its Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes. Another U.S. operator, United Airlines, has suspended service on all 78 of its 737 MAX 9 aircraft. Both the carriers reported “loose bolts” on the doors of their MAX 9 planes this week, following the global inspection ordered by Boeing last December.

No airline in India has the 737 MAX 9 in operation as of now. However, three Indian companies — Air India Express, Akasa Air, and SpiceJet — together have 44 planes of the 737 MAX 8 type, as shown in Chart 1.

Chart 1| The chart shows the number of Boeing 737 MAX 8s and other aircraft types with select airlines.

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Four of them are not in service right now and are parked at various locations. In particular, all the 22 planes operated by Akasa Air are of this variant.