If you work in the hospitality sector, you were seeing good things because people were travelling and seeing the world. Flights were booked solid and the earnings for the airlines were bullish and even the airline makers had large back orders to satisfy the future demand. Things were going good and then a cabin panel door blew up a plane.

In an article by David Shepardson of Reuters, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) launched a formal investigation into the Boeing 737 Max 9 after a panel door came off from an Alaskan Airlines plane. The plane was leaving Portland, Oregan when the door came off, the door was found in suburbs and the plane went back to Portland to make an emergency landing.

Boeing has delivered 171 planes to Alaska Airlines and United Airlines and the planes were grounded, pending safety inspections.

Boeing said in a statement We will cooperate fully and transparently with the FAA and NTSB investigations.

Similar to automakers, Boeing does not make most of the parts but assembles them. The supplier of the door is Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Ltd. Boeing was treating the issue as a quality control item. Alaskan Airlines and United Airlines will need revised inspections and maintenance instructions from Boeing that must be approved by the FAA before the planes can fly again.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the only consideration on timeline is safety.

It is noted in an article by Liz Alderman of the New York Times News Service, Airbus delivered more aircraft and cemented more deals than Boeing in 2023 for the 5th straight year.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, in 2023 Airbus and Boeing had record orders for planes to be delivered in the future. In 2019 all Max aircraft were grounded for 20 months. Just when the sky seemed to be sunny for the airlines and airline makers, an incident happened. The stocks went down and should bounce up again.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.