‘This stuff matters’:Boeing chief Dave Calhoun.Credit:Jamila Toderas
A chorus of airline chiefs,including two of Boeing’s biggest customers — Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary and Emirates’ Tim Clark in Dubai — have spoken publicly of the need for Boeing to raise quality standards. Wizz Air’s CEO Jozsef Varadi said the relationship between manufacturers and regulators had gotten too “cosy”.
“They’ve had quality control problems for a long time now,and this is just another manifestation of that,” Clark said in an interview this week in Dubai. “I think they’re getting their act together now,but this doesn’t help.”
National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy said on Monday that her agency would consider broadening the probe. Such a move would bring deeper scrutiny for Boeing and its manufacturing processes,and magnify the issue as the US planemaker seeks to get the aircraft back into service.
Calhoun,66,took over as CEO of Boeing at the start of 2020 after the board ousted then-CEO Dennis Muilenburg for mishandling the grounding crisis. He cancelled an annual offsite retreat for senior executives that was planned for this week,in response to the Alaska incident.
Boeing chairman Larry Kellner was also present at the meeting alongside board member David Joyce,the former long-time GE Aviation chief who now heads up the aerospace giant’s safety committee.
The panel that broke loose from Flight 1282 covered an opening on the Max 9 that can be used for emergency exits. Some airlines,including United and Alaska,cover them up because the doors aren’t needed for lower-density seat configurations.
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“We do see the latest incident as eroding the fragile confidence that has been built around the 737 Max franchise,” Ron Epstein,an analyst with Bank of America,told clients over the weekend.
“In our view,Boeing needs to tread carefully and cautiously through this potential reputational minefield.”
Bloomberg
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