Indonesian Airline Seeks to Cancel Boeing Order

By WSJ City 

Flag carrier Garuda Indonesia said it is seeking to cancel an order for 49 Boeing 737 MAX jets, saying passengers have lost confidence in the aircraft following two deadly crashes in recent months.

KEY FACTS

- Garuda CEO I Gusti Ngurah Askhara Danadiputra told WSJ the airline sent a letter to Boeing "to say that we want to cancel.

--- "Boeing representatives were planning to meet with Garuda on March 28 "for further discussion," Garuda said.

--- Garuda said consumers "have lost confidence in the Boeing 737 MAX 8."

--- A new MAX jet flown by Lion Air, Indonesia's largest airline by fleet size, crashed shortly after takeoff in October.

--- The plane's pilots struggled with the plane's automated anti-stall system.

Why This Matters

The move makes Garuda the first airline to publicly confirm plans to cancel a 737 MAX order. The 737 MAX jets were grounded by regulators world-wide this month in the wake of an Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed all 157 passengers and crew on board. On Thursday, a senior Boeing executive defended the company's aircraft design and production processes and said fixes to software linked to at least one of the crashes should be ready within weeks.

A fuller story is available on WSJ.com

WSJ City: The news, the key facts and why it matters. Be deeply informed in less than five minutes. You can find more concise stories like this on the WSJ City app. Download now from the App Store or Google Play, or sign up to newsletters here http://www.wsj.com/newsletters?sub=356&mod=djemwsjcity

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 22, 2019 06:45 ET (10:45 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.