News Backgrounder
Long road back for Boeing as MAX grounding drifts into June
February 1st 2020
Immediately after new president and chief executive, 62-year-old David L. Calhoun, moved into the hot seat at Boeing last month, he outlined plans for rebuilding the company’s flagging fortunes and damaged reputation. Read More »
In an email on January 13, Calhoun said: “This company has a tremendous legacy of aerospace achievement, which is thanks to your efforts and the contributions of generations before you. I honor that legacy and I appreciate your tireless commitment. I also recognize the learnings, many of them painful, from the experiences of the last 18 months that you are bringing to the way we do business.
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“I see greatness in this company, but I also see opportunities to be better. Much better. It includes engaging one another and our stakeholders with greater transparency, holding ourselves accountable to the highest standards of safety and quality and incorporating an outside-in perspective on what we do and how we do it.
“In my first few days and weeks as president and CEO, I will be listening closely to you, our customers, our partners and our regulators to ensure we understand the expectations of our stakeholders and are on a path to meeting them. In doing so, we’ll become stronger as a company and as an industry.”
A Boeing director since 2009 and board chairman from October to December last year, Calhoun has held senior leadership roles at GE, the private equity Blackstone Group and most recently Nielsen Holdings. During his 26 years at GE, he led GE Transportation and GE Aircraft Engines.
Calhoun’s email said putting the MAX back in the air must be the primary focus of the company. “This includes following the lead of our regulators and working with them to ensure they are satisfied completely with the airplane and our work so we can continue to meet our customer commitments. We will get it done and we will get it done right.”
Calhoun continued: “We will keep taking steps to maintain our supply chain and workforce expertise so we’re ready to restart production and increase rate safely, smartly and with the highest standards of quality.
| Boeing boss concedes company’s relationships are damaged New Boeing president and CEO, David Calhoun, admitted to staff in a January email many stakeholders were rightly disappointed and it was vital to repair these relationships. “We’ll do so through a recommitment to transparency and by meeting and exceeding their expectations. We will listen, seek feedback and respond appropriately, urgently and respectfully,” he said. |
“We’ll continue to invest in our global workforce and processes and technologies to become safer and more efficient as we define the future of aerospace.
“This work includes preparing for the first CST-100 Starliner crewed mission, first flights of the 777X and 737 MAX 10, expansion of our Global Services business and finalization of our Embraer partnership. This is our path forward. I am excited to be part of it with you. My sleeves are rolled up. I know yours are too.”
Ten days later, Boeing announced it was informing customers and suppliers it estimates the ungrounding of the MAX would not begin until mid-2020.
Some U.S. airlines already had said they would not be including the MAX in their flight schedules before June.
Boeing also has revealed it had notified the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) about another MAX issue concerning software that verifies whether key tracking systems on board the aircraft type are operating properly.
“We are making necessary updates and working with the FAA on the submission of this change and keeping our customers and suppliers informed,” Boeing said.
Xiamen Airlines, until recently an exclusive Boeing customer, has invited bids from leasing companies to supply it with 10 A321neo. Majority-owned by China Southern Airlines, Xiamen said it was planning for deliveries of the Airbus airplanes from the second half of 2021 to 2023. The Mainland airline has been in talks with Airbus as the Sino/U.S. trade war played out and the grounding of the MAX continued. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said China’s aviation industry reported revenue of US$154.27 billion in 2019, a 5.4% increase over 2018. Commercial airlines operated 600 million passenger flights and transported 7.52 million tonnes of cargo for the 12 months to December 31, increases of 7.9% and 1.9%, respectively. |
