Boeing cannot get out of the crisis with its important bestseller 737 Max. Now the CEO and other managers have announced their departure.
A few weeks after a near-miss, the ailing aircraft manufacturer Boeing is initiating a change at the top of the company. CEO Dave Calhoun will be giving up his position at the end of the year, the US competitor of the aircraft manufacturer Airbus announced.
The flight of a Boeing 737-9 Max from Alaska Airlines on January 5th was a turning point for the company, Calhoun wrote to employees. “The eyes of the world are on us.” The news was well received on the financial market. Boeing shares rose by around two percent shortly after trading began in New York. It had lost more than a quarter of its value since the turn of the year.
In addition to Calhoun, Chairman of the Board of Directors Larry Kellner and the head of the commercial aircraft division, Stan Deal, are also resigning. While Kellner will no longer stand for election at this year’s Annual General Meeting, Deal will hand over his position to Stephanie Pope with immediate effect. The manager took over management of day-to-day business at Boeing at the beginning of the year. When her promotion was announced in December, she was already considered a possible successor to Calhoun.
Calhoun moved to the top job at the beginning of 2020 after his predecessor Dennis Muilenburg resigned as a result of his heavily criticized crisis management following the crashes of two 737 Max jets. Calhoun now emphasized that his own farewell was his personal decision. He informed the board of directors that 2024 would be his last year as CEO.
It has not yet been decided who will succeed Calhoun at the helm of the aviation and defense company. The new chairman of the board of directors, Steve Mollenkopf, will lead the selection process. The former boss of the chip manufacturer Qualcomm has been a member of the committee since 2020.
Door-sized part flies away
A part of the fuselage the size of a door flew out of the Alaska Airlines jet in flight. The more than 170 people on board the plane escaped with horror. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is scrutinizing the production of Boeing and its fuselage supplier Spirit Aerosystems. The NTSB accident investigation agency and the US Department of Justice are investigating. According to initial findings, the NTSB investigators assume that four fastening bolts were missing from the fuselage fragment.
At the behest of the FAA, Boeing is not allowed to expand production of the entire 737 Max series as planned until further notice. Due to delays in Boeing’s production, airlines such as the Irish low-cost airline Ryanair and its US counterpart Southwest have already cut their flight schedules.
The medium-haul jet 737 Max is the new edition of the 737 that has been built since the 1960s and is by far the manufacturer’s most popular model. As early as 2019, Boeing got into the worst crisis in its history with the type. After two jets crashed, killing a total of 346 people, authorities around the world issued flight bans. Only after technical improvements was the model gradually released for air traffic again after more than 20 months.
Boeing is lagging behind Airbus
The disaster cost the manufacturer billions. In one fell swoop, Boeing lost its position as the world’s largest aircraft manufacturer to Airbus in 2019 and has been lagging behind ever since. The US group has now been in the red for five years in a row. The consequences of the latest incident and the regulatory requirements are costing Boeing billions more, as CFO Brian West explained a few days ago.
According to the information, Calhoun wants to continue to lead the group through the year in order to complete the stabilization of the company and its positioning for the future. “We must continue to respond to this accident with humility and complete transparency,” the manager wrote to employees. “We also need to embed a comprehensive commitment to safety and quality at all levels of our company.”
According to the New York Times, in the most recent investigations, Boeing only passed 56 of 89 reviews of individual processes. A total of 97 violations were found, the newspaper reported in mid-March, citing an internal presentation. How serious the problems were remained unclear. The FAA has so far only announced that it has found multiple violations.
Source: Stern
