First it was June, then November and now it is sometime next year. Once again, the return-to-service date for the grounded Boeing 737 Max series jets has been pushed further out into the future.

Even more, with the latest delay has come a huge price tag. On Wednesday, the company reported its biggest quarterly loss ever after recording a nearly $5bn after-tax charge associated with compensating airlines affected by the Max, which was taken out of service in March after 346 people were killed by crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia.

As a researcher of confidence-driven decision making, 2020 looks woefully optimistic to me, as does the company’s special charge. In fact, based on what I see, it is not too early for Boeing to start considering a Plan B for the existing Max series fleet.