Qatar Airways CEO has confidence in Boeing airplanes

MUSCAT: Qatar Airways’ chief executive said on Monday the Middle East carrier has confidence in Boeing airplanes following two crashes involving the US planemaker’s 737 MAX.

“We have confidence in the Boeing airplanes and we are sure they will find the issue they had which is still under investigation,” Akbar al-Baker told reporters in Muscat.

Though the airline has delayed the April delivery of a Boeing 737 MAX until the cause of the Ethiopian Airlines crash is known, Baker said.

“We will not be able take this until we know exactly what the result of the investigation is and how long it will take the airplane to get airborne again,” Akbar al-Baker told Reuters.

Qatar Airways has ordered 20 Boeing 737 MAX jets.

Regulators this month grounded the worldwide MAX fleet after an Ethiopian Airlines jet fatally crashed on March 10, killing all 157 people on board. Another MAX crashed in Indonesia in October.

Boeing will fine-tune its MCAS system — implicated in the crash of a Lion Air 737 MAX 8 in Indonesia in October — within 10 days, two sources told AFP earlier this month.

Asked for details about the timeline for the fix, a Boeing spokesman would only say it would be installed in “coming weeks.”