Southwest delays jet deliveries due to engine flaw

Dallas

SOUTHWEST Airlines Co may have sidestepped a scheduling headache by letting other carriers take the first deliveries of Boeing Co's upgraded 737 MAX jetliners.

The discount airline, the initial buyer of the plane, is awaiting inspection results for 10 engines on its future jets to see if the turbines have a potential manufacturing defect. But that shouldn't delay Southwest's first flights with the aircraft, which aren't scheduled until October.

"They'll take those engines off, examine the discs," Southwest chief operating officer Mike Van de Ven said in an interview on Wednesday at the company's annual shareholder meeting in Phoenix. "If they have issues, then they'll replace them. If not, they'll go back on the airplane." The inspections involve two engines on each of five 737 MAX aircraft built for Southwest but not yet delivered. That's about a third of the power plants being examined by supplier CFM International, a venture of General Electric Co (GE) and Safran SA, after flights were temporarily suspended last week. CFM alerted Boeing earlier this month to a possible manufacturing quality problem with …