By David Shepardson
(Reuters) -Southwest Airlines said it will begin on Friday flying its first jet with a secondary barrier to the flight deck designed to prevent intrusions.
The plane - a Boeing 737 MAX 8 which was delivered in recent days - will make its first flight on Friday afternoon from Phoenix to Salt Lake City, the airline said.
Secondary barriers -- long sought after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that exposed the risks of inadequate flight detect protection -- are crucial to aviation safety,
pilots unions have argued.
The flight is a milestone that marks the beginning of the roll out of the safety feature across the new U.S. commercial airline fleet in the coming years.
Boeing and Airbus told Reuters they have begun delivering airplanes with the barriers under the regulation announced in 2023 that took effect on Monday.
Last month, the Federal Aviation Administration agreed to give airlines until late July 2026 to put the barriers in newly delivered planes into use. Most major carriers have told the FAA they plan to take advantage of the extension and not immediately begin using the barriers.
Southwest has opted to immediately begin complying as they take delivery of new airplanes and expects to take deliver about 25 additional Boeing airplanes this year that will have the barriers.
After the hijacking of four U.S. airplanes on September 11, 2001, the FAA adopted standards for flight deck security to make them resistant to forcible intrusion and unauthorized entry.
The rule requires aircraft manufacturers to install a second physical barrier on new planes used in commercial passenger service in the United States, but does not require existing planes to be retrofitted.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Leslie Adler and Chris Sanders)
