Airline Flight: Tuesday, February 09, 2010 Koito

Koito Industries will repair approximately 150,000 seats, fitted primarily to Airbus and Boeing aircraft, after Japanese and European aviation authorities stated the company had falsified test results and made unauthorized design changes to their products. Initially the thought was that perhaps the problem was not so big. But reality is striking at the industry hard. 150,000 seats!

Seats on 1,000 aircraft, covering 32 carriers in 24 countries are affected. Koito has been instructed to halt shipments of new seats that have not been tested properly. Since September 2009, Airbus has been prevented from delivering aircraft fitted with Koito seats. All Nippon Airways, Singapore Airlines and Continental Airlines have all been forced to delay the introduction of new aircraft due to delays in seat deliveries from the manufacturer. Japan Airlines is also reportedly affected.

This now explains a number of planes that seemingly are ready for delivery but have not been delivered - Singapore's newest A380 for example. Clearly Koito is going to pay compensation of terrifying proportions. Moreover one has to wonder if it can survive a hit like this. Its management cheated and lied for a long time - and where were safety inspections by the Japanese government? Each airplane seat has to be certified as passing tests. So who was watching this? Does nobody own the responsibility?

The downstream impact has to be huge. Essentially the question is this - can you trust the Japanese aviation safety regulatory authority? Right now, absent any further information, the answer is no. Sweeping this problem under the rug of convenience by the Japanese, Koito or even airlines is inappropriate. For an industry whose mantra is and always has been safety first - where is the "sturm und drang"? This is, in our view, a very big and serious problem.

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