U.S. government shutdown holds up FAA approval of aircraft\, routes

U.S. government shutdown holds up FAA approval of aircraft, routes

Reuters 

By and Allison Lampert

A partial shutdown over Donald Trump's demand for $5.7 billion to build a wall along the U.S.-border entered its 24th day on Monday.

The deadlock threatens to slow the ability of U.S. airlines to launch new routes and integrate newly delivered airplanes into their fleets and place them into service, since each new aircraft must be signed off by local inspection offices.

Airlines said on Monday it had paused its plans to launch service to because the FAA groups that oversee the route authorization process are on furlough.

Until it receives authorization, Dallas-based will not announce timelines for selling or operating flights to Hawaii, initially targeted for early this year, it said.

No. 1 U.S. carrier said it has taken delivery of two new MAX 8, but the planes are sitting idle, awaiting FAA approvals. American, with a fleet of around 950 aircraft, said it did not see any immediate impact from the delay.

A for said the No. 3 U.S. carrier is waiting for FAA service to be restored so it can enter one 737 MAX 9 and one used A319 into service.

Europe's Airbus, which recently took over the Canadian-developed CSeries jet and renamed it A220, declined comment on potential delays in deliveries of the airplane to .

Delta, which has taken delivery of four A220-100 jets, said by email it will work with the FAA to ensure the plane is "fully certified," and remains on schedule to begin flights on Jan. 31.

Analysts said they did not expect a major impact on large airlines' capacity as a result of the FAA delays, but will be awaiting management comments about the effect of a prolonged shutdown.

The shutdown is also affecting the certification programme for Gulfstream Aerospace's new G600 corporate plane, along with other "facets of our business," a said on Monday without providing further details.

Savannah-based Gulfstream, a division of had expected to obtain certification or approval for the G600 by late 2018. The long-range business jet, which can fly nonstop from to Los Angeles, is expected to enter service this year.

(Reporting by in Chicago, Allison in and in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by in Montreal; Editing by and James Dalgleish)

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Tue, January 15 2019. 02:36 IST