British holidaymakers could face travel chaos this summer due to aircraft shortage caused by safety crisis

It comes after questions about safety have surrounded the aircraft manufacturer ever since a door plug blew out of a 737 Max on an Alaska Airlines flight in January.

In March, a wheel fell off a Boeing 777-200 shortly after take off from San Francisco, crushing cars below. No one was injured and the flight was diverted to Los Angeles Airport where it landed safely.

Chairman of Dublin-based Avia Gediminas Ziemelis told The Telegraph: “Airlines are desperate for aircraft because of the production problems but the well is dry.”

Avia is expecting to lease around 80 per cent of its fleet of 212 aircraft to airlines across Europe this summer. However, Ziemelis still fears that some carriers will fail to secure enough planes to maintain planned routes.

Analysts from the company determined that only eight of the roughly 250 aircraft available across Europe for short-term rent have yet to be placed with airlines. The firm predicts that as a result, many airlines will be forced to reduce their summer flights.

Ziemelis predicts that the supply chain issues at Airbus and Boeing will sustain a ‘bubble’ in demand until 2026.The chairman said that Turkish Airlines will be its biggest single customer this summer, leasing more than 30 planes, with eight jets being leased to Lufthansa and four to British Airways.

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It comes as TUS Justice Department said Boeing breached its obligations under a 2021 agreement that kept the plane maker from criminal prosecution following fatal 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people.

In January 2021, the company agreed with the Justice Department to pay $2.5billion to resolve a criminal investigation into the company’s conduct surrounding the fatal crashes. The agreement included money to compensate victims’ relatives and required Boeing to overhaul its compliance practices.

The deal, known as a deferred prosecution agreement, gave the company a way to avoid being prosecuted on a charge of conspiring to defraud the US Federal Aviation Administration.

The agreement was set to expire on January 7, 2024. Two days before that, a panel blew off a new Boeing 737 MAX Nine jet during an Alaska Airlines flight.

On March 9, Boeing whistleblower John Barnett, 62, former quality control manager and employee of 32 years, was found dead in his truck outside a South Carolina hotel days after testifying against the company in a lawsuit.

The coroner put it down to a “self-inflicted” gunshot wound in the head, though the police confirmed that they would investigate further.

Barnett had made a string of complaints to his higher-ups in his time as a quality control manager before leaving the company on health grounds in 2017.

GB News has approached Boeing for a comment.