Arlington, Virginia  – Boeing has announced plans to acquire crucial supplier Spirit AeroSystems for $4.7 billion, claiming that the acquisition will boost jet quality and safety in the face of increased scrutiny from Congress, airlines, and the Department of Justice.

Boeing formerly controlled Spirit, and the acquisition would reverse a long-standing Boeing strategy of outsourcing critical work on its passenger jets. This technique has been criticized after problems at Spirit hampered the manufacturing and delivery of major Boeing jetliners such as the 737 and 787.

Under Pressure On Plane Safety, Boeing Is Buying Stressed Supplier Spirit For $4.7 Billion

“We believe this transaction is in the best interests of the flying public, our airline customers, the employees of Spirit and Boeing, our shareholders, and the country as a whole,” Boeing President and CEO Dave Calhoun said in a statement late Sunday.

Safety concerns arose following the January 5 burst of a panel on an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 at 16,000 feet (4,876 meters) over Oregon. The Federal Aviation Administration soon announced greater oversight of Boeing and Spirit, which supplied the plane’s fuselage.

There were no significant injuries in the Alaska Airlines door incident, which startled passengers, but the US Justice Department is pressuring Boeing to plead guilty to criminal fraud in connection with two catastrophic airline disasters involving its 737 Max jetliners more than five years ago.

According to three people who heard federal prosecutors outline a planned offer on Sunday, Boeing has until the end of the week to accept or reject the offer. The offer includes the major aerospace corporation agreeing to an independent monitor to oversee its compliance with anti-fraud rules.

In a May court filing, the Justice Department stated that Boeing breached the conditions of a 2021 settlement that allowed the corporation to avoid prosecution for its activities leading up to the Ethiopia and Indonesia crashes, which killed 346 people.

These crashes were caused by a defective sensor in a flight-control system, and the investigation is different from the one into the more recent Alaska Airlines blowout, which involved Spirit.

In 2005, Boeing spun off Spirit, a company based in Wichita, Kansas, unrelated to Spirit Airlines. In recent years, quality issues have arisen, such as fuselage panels that needed to fit together precisely enough and holes that were incorrectly drilled.

Under Pressure On Plane Safety, Boeing Is Buying Stressed Supplier Spirit For $4.7 Billion

Spirit fired its CEO in October and replaced him with Patrick Shanahan, a former Boeing executive who served as temporary defense secretary during the Trump administration.

Things appeared to be going more smoothly until the Alaska Airlines incident. Investigators said a panel used to replace an extra emergency door was removed at a Boeing factory to allow Spirit workers to repair broken rivets, and bolts that keep the panel in place were missing following the repair. It is unclear who removed the bolts and neglected to reinstall them.

Spirit announced in May that it was cutting off approximately 450 workers at its Wichita factory due to a production slowdown following the January event. Its overall workforce numbered just over 13,000.

“Bringing Spirit and Boeing together will enable greater integration of both companies’ manufacturing and engineering capabilities, including safety and quality systems,” Shanahan told the media.

According to the aerospace business, the stock value of the acquisition is $4.7 billion, or $37.25 per share, while the total value of the transaction is roughly $8.3 billion, including Spirit’s most recent declared net debt.

Boeing said its common stock will be exchanged for Spirit shares using a variable formula based on a weighted average of the share price during a 15-day trading period that concludes on the second day before the transaction closes.

The businesses also announced a deal with Airbus to pursue the purchase of Spirit assets associated with the European aerospace firm’s programs. The Airbus agreement will take effect after Boeing’s acquisition of Spirit is completed, according to the two US businesses.

SOURCE – (AP)

WestJet, Canada’s second-largest airline, said it had to cancel at least 235 flights on Saturday because the maintenance workers’ union went on strike. This affected 33,000 people. The Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association said that its members went on strike on Friday night because the airline was “unwilling to negotiate with the union.”

Thursday, the federal government sent an executive order for binding arbitration, which led to the strike. That came after two weeks of rough talks with the union about a new deal.

Leaders from WestJet said at a news conference in Calgary that 150 more flights could be canceled by the end of the day if the strike wasn’t stopped. When asked what caused the problem, Alexis von Hoensbroech, CEO of the airline, said it was a “rogue union from the U.S.” trying to make gains in Canada.

From the airline’s point of view, Von Hoensbroech said that talks with the union were over once the government sent the case to formal arbitration.

WestJet Strike Called Pointless

“This makes a strike completely pointless, because the whole point of a strike is to put pressure on the other side of the bargaining table,” he said. It doesn’t make sense to go on strike if there isn’t a talking table.

Plus, the union turned down a deal that would have made the mechanics at the plane the “best paid in the country.”

During the Canada Day long weekend, there is a surprise strike that is affecting both domestic and foreign flights.

The union negotiating committee told its members about an order from the Canada Industrial Relations Board that doesn’t directly say that there can’t be any strikes or lockouts while the tribunal does its arbitration work.

The WestJet aircraft repair engineer Sean McVeigh who was picketing at Toronto Pearson International Airport Terminal 3 on Saturday said that the strike is an effort to get the airline to return to a “respectful negotiation.”

McVeigh said that the union is sorry for any trouble this has caused for travelers.

“However, the reason they (passengers) may have missed a flight or had to cancel is because WestJet is not respectfully sitting down at the table and negotiating,” he said on the picket line with about 20 other people. “We work hard and deserve some money for all the work we do,” he said.

Samantha Sahan and Samee Jan, two WestJet passengers at Pearson, said they were going to leave on Saturday with extended family for a trip to Calgary that they had been planning for six to eight months.

They got texts earlier in the day telling them their flight had been rescheduled for Monday, but Sahan said they still went to the terminal. They were trying to get more information and the strike made it hard to plan their trip, he said.

“Their inaction hurts a lot of people, including their own business and customers who probably won’t buy from them again,” Sahan said.

Jan said it was “sad” what was going on.

Canada’s WestJet has been around since 1996 and is known for having nice staff and low prices. It began small but quickly grew. Now, it flies to more than 100 places in Europe, North America, Central America, and the Caribbean.

They use new planes and put a lot of thought into making them comfortable and reliable. WestJet Rewards is an easy-to-use reward program that gives you points you can use. They have a good app that makes booking flights and checking in easy.

WestJet has great customer service. They’re friendly and willing to help, so your trip goes smoothly from beginning to end. Plus, they have lounges and seats for business visitors who want more comfort.  Overall, WestJet does a good job of adapting to market changes and maintaining its high level of service without going over budget.

Source: AP

Some shady personalities are making an unwelcome appearance in the Lego fandom, which is well-known to include children, teenagers, and adult collectors—and for all the wrong reasons.

Lego products, particularly the more expensive sets that cost $1,000 or more, are highly sought after by both lone shoplifters and larger organized retail crime rings. This is because the sets, which are displayed on store shelves, can be sold for a healthy profit through both legal and illegal channels.

Shoplifters Love Lego. The Colorful Plastic Toy Bricks Are A Gold Mine For Criminals

Miguel Zuniga is still coping with the June 18 break-in at his Bricks & Minifigs Lego resale franchise store in Lomita, Los Angeles County.

Around five in the morning on Tuesday, the Lego heist took place.

“The ADT security system called while I was sleeping. My wife then received a call. We were being robbed, so I went directly to the cameras,” Zuniga said to CNN.

Within ten minutes, he arrived at his store, but the robbers had left with an estimated $5,000 to $7,000 worth of Legos.

Retail crime specialists told CNN that Lego sets that have been stolen are easy to resale, usually difficult to track down, and, if they are in immaculate condition and unused, can fetch a price that’s not too far off the original retail price. Even well-maintained old sets might fetch 50% of their original cost.

Several states have had Lego thefts in recent months.

According to CNN affiliate KABC, authorities in California detained two individuals earlier this month in relation to a retail crime ring that reportedly stole thousands of Lego toys from multiple Southern California businesses.

According to a police statement cited in the story, more than 2,800 boxes of Lego toys, each with a retail value ranging from $20 to over $1,000, were found by LAPD detectives.

Police in Philadelphia have recorded several Lego set thefts in the last several months from stores like Barnes & Noble and Target; the stolen sets have been valued anywhere from $250 to $1,000 per. Target informed CNN that it was unable to provide any information regarding Lego thefts at its locations. An inquiry for comment was not immediately answered by Barnes & Noble.

Additionally, police in Richmond, British Columbia, just north of the border, found and confiscated more than a thousand pilfered toys in March. Lego sets and other soft toys valued at over $150,000 were among the pilfered items.

Among the most often taken goods
Lego sets are frequently in the top 10 most stolen retail products, along with branded jeans, purses, designer shoes, Olay skincare products, and Apple devices, according to experts, despite the difficulty in obtaining reliable statistics.

“Lego is different. Read Hayes, director of the Loss Prevention Research Council, which has Walmart, Target, Home Depot, and Gap as members, and a criminologist at the University of Florida, said, “The brand is always refreshing their offerings, always on trend with tie-ins to pop culture and special edition sets.”

Hayes told CNN that his company collaborates with most stores who sell Lego merchandise in addition to Legoland theme parks. “There is always a demand.”

Shoplifters Love Lego. The Colorful Plastic Toy Bricks Are A Gold Mine For Criminals

Because of this, there is a growing market for counterfeit goods, particularly on the internet, in addition to the market for stolen Lego products.

Lego violations are nothing new to Wichita, Kansas, police captain Casey Slaughter, who oversees the department’s property crimes section.

Slaughter told CNN, “We see Lego toys as one of the more frequently stolen items in our area.” “Lego theft can happen to any retailer selling the brand, but there are also a few secondhand stores that specialize in Lego that have emerged as resellers.” They are under attack.

Lego thieves find it easy money, he claimed. He claimed that it was hard to find out where they were taken from.

Wichita Police looked into 19 Lego thefts between January 8, 2024, and May 7, 2024, according to information the police agency sent CNN. The information showed that among the stolen items were sets from the Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, and Star Wars movies.

When contacted for comment, Lego referred CNN to online tools on its website to teach customers how to recognize phony Lego products and online businesses.

Since April, a number of Bricks & Minifigs locations in California have experienced thefts.

“This is most likely our fourth or fifth Lego-themed hit. Regarding the heist of Zuniga’s store, Captain Calvin Mah of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s major crimes section stated in an interview with CNN that “they happen quickly, 30 seconds to a minute.”

“I could see that they were aiming for particular Lego pieces when I watched the security footage. They had a clear idea of what they wanted. They were looking for the uncommon or collectible sets, the high-end and high-value ones, he claimed.

Shoplifters Love Lego. The Colorful Plastic Toy Bricks Are A Gold Mine For Criminals

When Zuniga told CNN about the robbery, she became tearful.

On the day of the break-in, Zuniga cleaned his store and then went home to take a shower.

He remarked, “I sent a bat signal to the community when I came back to come and support us in our time of need.” Consumers arrived; some even gave away their Lego sets. To stock empty shelves, he purchased Lego kits that were marked down at the neighborhood Target.

“The first customer that came in at nine in the morning was a 71-year-old who had built some of the most expensive Lego sets,” Zuniga recalled, sobbing uncontrollably. He’s a legend in our community. He arrived crying.

SOURCE – (CNN)