Problems at Boeing are “just the tip of the iceberg,” according to the Emirates boss

With white hair, Tim Clark sits in a suit and tie in front of a bright red Emirates display at the head of a long table. The 74-year-old Brit has been president of the state airline of the Emirate of Dubai for 20 years. He has his hands folded on the table and miniature models of the Airbus A380 and Boeing 777 aircraft are lined up in front of him. They are the largest in the world and an essential part of the Emirates fleet.

But at the American aircraft manufacturer Boeing, the list of defects has been getting longer and longer for months. Just today, 50 people were apparently injured on board a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner on a flight from Sydney to Auckland. As the affected Chilean airline Latam Airlines told Radio New Zealand, a “technical problem” had caused severe turbulence. Most of the passengers were not wearing seatbelts and some, according to fellow passengers, even flew through the cabin.

The 787-9, a newer long-haul aircraft from Boeing, was able to land safely, and most were only slightly injured. But the whole thing is still a horror story – especially given the aircraft manufacturer’s current problems. The near-disaster in January, in which a part broke out of the fuselage of an Alaska Airlines plane shortly after takeoff of a 737 Max, ruthlessly exposed the massive quality deficiencies in Boeing’s production.

Since then, several authorities in the USA have been investigating, Boeing has had to reduce its production and is now being closely monitored from all sides, including of course the airlines. For them, the whole thing means that they have to wait even longer for the aircraft they have ordered. Emirates boss Clark still wants to have his aircraft, but “in the old way,” as he said on the sidelines of the ITB International Tourism Exchange in Berlin. In this case, “old” means above all safe. He calls on Boeing to finally set the right priorities.

Boeing for Clark on the way “in the right direction”

Clark knows the aviation industry better than almost anyone else. He said to a group of press representatives in Berlin that he had been surprised at some of the developments at Boeing in recent years. By this he means, for example, that Boeing moved its headquarters from its headquarters in Seattle to Chicago or that the new 787 aircraft will not be built in Seattle, but in South Carolina, where the unions are less strong.

In addition, Boeing no longer builds the fuselages of many aircraft itself, but rather the long-outsourced supplier Spirit Aerosystems. “That would be like saying: We’ll leave our technology and airline operations to someone else. That’s taboo in our way of thinking,” says Clark. “But it’s exactly what Boeing did and I think it’s been a problem for them ever since.”

As aviation expert and long-time Boeing spokesman Heinrich Großbongardt explained for Capital after the incident in January, the separation of finance and technology at Boeing has been increasingly weakened in recent years. As a result, fewer and fewer engineers were in charge. “This led to many wrong decisions in production and to the quality deteriorating over a long period of time,” says Großbongardt. “Now they’re trying to turn things back, but it’s a long way.” At least Boeing now wants to buy Sprit Aerosystems again and thus bring the fuselage construction back to itself, for Clark “a step in the right direction”.

Years of delays in delivery of new aircraft

The fuselage of the 737 Max, from which the part broke off in January, also came from Spirit. The US accident investigation agency NTSB found that four important bolts were apparently missing from the torn part. After the incident, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) banned Boeing from further expanding production of the Max line.

Boeing actually wanted to increase the pace of construction of its Max aircraft: on the one hand, to at least catch up somewhat with its competitor Airbus, and on the other hand, to secure its cash flow. Because deliveries are crucial to the company’s economic success – and here Boeing is lagging behind. The US airline Delta announced in July 2022 that it would purchase 100 737 Max 10 aircraft for around $13.5 billion. On Sunday, Delta boss Ed Bastian said in an interview with the “Bloomberg” agency that delivery could not take place until 2027.

The German airline Lufthansa also has outstanding orders, Clark is waiting for over 200 new aircraft for Emirates. Deliveries for the new 777-9 are already five and a half years late; the current delivery date is October next year. But whether this can be adhered to is already in question. The reason is the stricter safety controls and criminal investigations at Boeing.

Previous problems “just the tip of the iceberg”?

The many breakdowns at Boeing show that the numbers are a secondary problem for the aircraft manufacturer. “Don’t worry about cash flow, balance sheet, dividends or bonuses,” Clark appeals to Boeing. “Just look at what the company can actually produce. Nothing more and nothing less.” Boeing now has to find out what’s happening in the factory halls, ensure the right “spirit” again and needs “people who roll up their sleeves.” “If the FAA finds something, that suggests it was just the tip of the iceberg,” Clark said. “That’s why they have to shamelessly dismantle the whole production process. I think everyone would be happy to see that.” How long it takes to correct all deficiencies in the process depends on what resources Boeing invests.

The large number of incidents surrounding Boeing in recent weeks shows that a fundamental overhaul of the production and quality process seems necessary. Just last Friday, a United Airlines Boeing 777 lost a wheel after taking off from San Francisco and had to land straight back in Los Angeles instead of flying to Japan as planned. At the beginning of the year, a Delta Air Boeing 757 also lost a wheel shortly before takeoff.

As United pointed out after the incident, passenger planes can also land with missing or damaged tires. An Airbus plane landed last month without any tires. But since these mishaps are among many others, it underscores Boeing’s problems.

Comparison after crashes could be in question

Since two Boeing 737-Max crashes in 2018 and 2019, Boeing has been under strict supervision by the FAA. At that time, a settlement worth $2.5 billion was agreed upon. Among other things, this stipulated that Boeing would not have any legal problems and would cooperate with all official investigations.

At the beginning of March, the FAA announced that possible deficiencies in quality control were noticed in several cases during the production of the 737 Max line by Boeing itself and by the important supplier Spirit Aerosystems. It was also announced at the weekend that the US Department of Justice is now also investigating. According to the Wall Street Journal, investigators have contacted Alaska Airlines passengers, pilots and cabin crew with the broken fuselage part. This apparently makes investors nervous. In pre-market trading on Wall Street on Monday, the aircraft manufacturer’s shares fell by a good two percent.

If the US Department of Justice comes to the conclusion that Boeing violated the commitments made in the settlement after the crashes, allegations of false statements at the time could come back into play and supervision of the company could be extended.

But Emirates boss Clark believes the message has reached Boeing after the many reports and statements. “I believe that the necessary steps will be taken and the whole thing can be saved,” he says, probably just hoping that it is so. After all, he needs the new Boeing 777-9 just as urgently as Boeing itself. The A380 won’t fly forever and Clark has been warning urgently for years that seats in the air could become scarce in the future.