The 737 Max’s return risks accidentally breaking the aviation industry

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Airbus has kept its distance while Boeing’s 737 Max continues to be grounded, but prior to the Paris Air Show, Guillaume Faury, Airbus’s Chief Executive, got involved.

Faury voiced concerns about both the strategic and practical fall-out from different countries applying divergent regulatory standards to the return to service of the 737 Max. “This is something I have shared with a couple of people in the industry to make sure they keep this in mind,” he said in an interview with The Air Current.

Related: 737 Max grounding threatens to unravel the aviation certification world order

“What I know is it would be detrimental to aviation if we would have the authorities not staying aligned together with common standards. [Regulatory harmony] has enabled very clear investment, a clear regulatory framework and a long-term perspective,” said Faury. “My recommendation in that very situation is that the importance of having the aviation authorities staying aligned is above the rest…because this is what this industry needs on the mid-term and the long-term, it is very important.”

Airbus declined to say who Faury spoke with.

Boeing itself hasn’t publicly taken a position on prioritizing regulatory unanimity over a potentially faster geographically incremental return to service, but those familiar with the company’s internal thinking say that it is acutely aware of how a lack of regulatory unanimity risks inadvertently doing significant damage to the aviation industry.

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