United Airlines Says Boeing’s Midair Blowout, Max 9 Grounding Cost It $200 Million

United Airlines is blaming troubled plane maker Boeing for a $200 million hit to its earnings in the first three months of this year after a midair blowout led to the grounding of many of its Max 9 planes. In its first-quarter 2024 financial results published on April 16, the company said it had a pretax loss of $164 million, which marked a $92 million improvement over the same quarter last year. The Chicago, Illinois-headquartered airline said those earnings “reflect the approximately $200 million impact from the Boeing 737 MAX 9 grounding, without which the company would have reported a quarterly profit.” Still, the first-quarter loss was narrower than expected by Wall Street, and United’s shares rose by roughly 6 percent in after-hours trading....