Boeing 737 Max 8

The Dallas Morning News
04/29/2020

The global grounding of the Boeing 737 Max was one of the most disruptive events of 2019. It was also one of the most consequential for Dallas-Fort Worth’s locally-based airlines, Southwest and American.

And in our newsroom, it couldn’t have landed at the worst possible moment – only weeks after The Dallas Morning News’ aviation writer departed for a new job in California. The business news team rose to the challenge. But it truly took a team effort, such as partnering with our investigations and data teams to break nationally significant developments, to stay ahead of this highly competitive story.

First up was business breaking news reporter Dom DiFurio, investigative reporter Cary Aspinwall and data journalist Ariana Giorgi as they broke a story about a database containing anonymous complaints from U.S. pilots about the Max’s safety. It was the first revelation of Max problems in the U.S. and set off intense national scrutiny of the plane and its maker, Boeing.

DiFurio and Aspinwall later teamed up again for another revelatory story about a tape recording made by American Airlines pilots during a tense meeting with a dismissive Boeing executive. The meeting occurred before the second fatal Max crash.

Soon, every major media outlet in the country was chasing leads about the Max and how the fallout rippled through the airline industry. Pilot unions for American and Southwest went on CNN to complain about the lack of instruction they received on Boeing’s new aircraft. Southwest CEO Gary Kelly told CNBC that the airline might forego its successful one-plane business model in the future. Airline caterers, long unhappy with their own contract, sought to capitalize on the chaos with work actions of their own.

At one point or another, every writer on the business team was involved in airline coverage in some way.

To help carry the day-to-day load, business columnist Mitchell Schnurman tag-teamed with DiFurio to bring insight and context to labor issues that further complicated the shortage of planes caused by the Max grounding. Not only were Southwest and American flying the industry’s two biggest fleets of the troubled jets, but they also were feeling the strain from stalled union discussions with mechanics. Southwest ended up suing its mechanics union.
When Southwest Airlines reached a lucrative deal to end its dispute with mechanics, Schnurman dissected the rocky path on the way to the agreement.

Yet flight cancellations and delays continued well into the summer, leaving thousands of travelers stranded and frustrated. Southwest Airlines saw the disruption drag down its stock price, raising the specter of higher fares for consumers.
When Kyle Arnold joined our staff in mid-June as our new aviation writer, the labor troubles had carried over to American Airlines. The Fort Worth carrier also sued its mechanics union and demanded the union compensate the airline for “enormous financial losses” from flight delays.

In July, American Airlines put a tally on the Max damage: $185 million and 7,800 canceled flights.
It was a spring and summer that both airlines were eager to put behind them, especially American, which saw its network fray from multiple pressure points. Both airlines lashed out at Boeing as the losses continued to mount.

As the Thanksgiving travel holiday approached, American was bumping passengers from overbooked flights at an industry-leading rate. And by year’s end, Southwest was starting to see partial payments from Boeing to offset losses from not having the Max.

And the saga isn’t over.

We’re proud of the teamwork that went into covering this important local story for The Dallas Morning News.

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Submitted by Chelsea Watkins.