Alaska Air found ‘one minor’ issue following inspections of Boeing 737-900ER planes

Alaska Air Group Inc.
ALK,
-0.03%,
which was at the heart of the issues surrounding the grounding of Boeing Co.’s
BA,
+1.24%
737 Max 9 planes, said Thursday it was “preparing to complete” the final inspections of all of those planes in its fleet. Regarding the Boeing 737-900ER model planes, which the Federal Aviation Administration said should also be “visually” inspected, Alaska Air said it has completed inspections of all those aircraft it has, “with only one minor finding which was immediately corrected.” The air carrier’s stock rose 0.9% in premarket trading. The company did not go into detail what the minor finding was. Alaska Air said it has initiated a thorough review of Boeing’s production quality and control systems, and started an enhanced quality oversight program at the Boeing 737-9 Max production facility. Separately, the air carrier reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share and revenue that beat expectations. The stock has rallied 13.3% over the past three months through Wednesday, while the U.S. Global Jets ETF
JETS,
+0.70%
has run up 25.4% and the S&P 500
SPX,
+0.08%
has gained 16.3%.