Flight attendants at 3 U.S. airlines stand up to Boeing CEO on 737 Max

Unions representing flight attendants at the three U.S. airlines that operate Boeing's 737 Max said they are more reluctant to support the grounded jet's return after congressional hearings this week on its development.

Southwest Airlines and United Airlines flight attendant union leaders joined American Airlines in demanding an active role in regulators' and airlines' decisions to let the 737 Max fly again after two fatal crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia.

The two unions spoke after news that the head of American Airlines' flight attendants union had sent Boeing chief executive Dennis Muilenburg a letter saying the Washington hearings raised questions about 737 Max supervision and oversight.

"The emails, the testimony … it all leads to more questions than answers," Chad Kleibscheidel of the Southwest flight attendants union said in reference to employee memos about the aircraft's safety before it was certified in 2017.

Southwest is the world's largest 737 Max operator and has over 15,000 flight attendants trained to fly the aircraft.

Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, which represents flight attendants at 20 airlines including United, said, "This week took a step backward in this process, not forward."

Calls to 'avoid another tragedy'

In its Oct. 30 letter to Boeing's Muilenburg, Association of Professional Flight Attendants president Lori Bassani said, the "28,000 flight attendants working for American Airlines refuse to walk onto a plane that may not be safe and are calling for the highest possible safety standards to avoid another tragedy."

The letter followed two days of congressional hearings in Washington during which lawmakers grilled the Boeing CEO about the development of the 737 Max following two crashes that killed 346 people and led to the aircraft's worldwide grounding in March.

American Airlines Group is the second largest U.S. operator of the 737 Max, with 24 jets in its fleet at the time of the grounding and dozens more on order.

Bassani told Muilenburg that the hearings show breakdowns in supervision of the 737 Max and raise questions about the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) resources for oversight.

Bassani was in Washington on Wednesday meeting with dozens of elected officials.

According to the letter, she wants to make sure her group has all the information needed to assess the safety of sending her crews back to work once the aircraft receives FAA approval.

Boeing spokesperson Gordon Johndroe in an emailed statement said Muilenburg had received the letter and will be responding soon.

"We are committed to providing flight attendants, pilots and our airline customers the information they need so we can re-earn their trust and that of the traveling public that counts on them," Johndroe said.

Southwest and United executives have told Reuters that flight attendants — along with pilots, call centre agents and gate agents — will play a key role in defending the jet to passengers once it is approved to fly again.

U.S. flight attendants were among the groups that called for the FAA to ground the 737 Max after an Ethiopian Airlines jet nose-dived after taking off from Addis Ababa on March 10, five months after a similar crash on a Lion Air flight in Indonesia. The two crashes killed 346 people.

Southwest, United and American Airlines are scheduling flights without the 737 Max into early next year, as the plane approaches a nine-month grounding, causing thousands of cancelled flights for each airline and a hit to profit.

Southwest pilots have sued Boeing for lost wages during the grounding.

"Flight attendants have taken a big hit to their salaries too," said Kleibscheidel, who is first vice-president of the Southwest flight attendants union, Transport Workers Local 556.

"People have bills to pay and mouths to feed. No planes, no pay."

Boeing has said it expects a 737 Max return to service in the current quarter. American Airlines has removed the 737 Max from its flying schedule until Jan. 16.