- By Mariko Oi
- Business reporter
January 23, 2024, 01:15 GMT
Updated 27 minutes ago
video caption,
Watch: During the air eruption on board the plane
A major US airline has announced that it will incur losses in the three months between January and March due to the grounding of Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded 171 aircraft after an unused door broke off mid-flight.
United Airlines has 79 of these aircraft in its fleet, more than any other airline, followed by Alaska Airlines.
Both airlines were forced to cancel hundreds of flights this month due to inspections.
United expects the planes to be grounded until Jan. 26, and its forecast assumes they won't be able to fly at all that month.
The Alaska Airlines flight from Portland, Oregon, to Ontario, California, had reached an altitude of 16,000 feet (4,876 m) when it began its emergency descent after the unused emergency exit door burst, according to flight tracking data.
In a statement on Sunday, the agency said: “The safety of flying passengers, rather than speed, will determine the timeline for returning these aircraft to service.”
The 737-900ER models have logged 11 million hours of operation without similar incidents to the newer 737 Max 9s.
The FAA did not order the older model to be grounded while operators conducted visual inspections.
Boeing has said it will increase the quality of inspections in its manufacturing processes following the incident.
On Tuesday, United reported pre-tax profits of $3.4 billion (£2.67 billion) for the full year 2023.
United will discuss the results in a conference call with analysts and investors on Tuesday morning. The company is expected to provide information about the latest status of safety inspections of the aircraft on the ground.
Both Alaska and Boeing are expected to report their results in the next two weeks.