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The chief of Emirates, one of Boeing’s largest clients, has said the crisis-stricken US aircraft maker should ensure its new chief executive has engineering experience to restore safety standards.
A day after Boeing chief executive Dave Calhoun announced he would step down, Sir Tim Clark also said he backed efforts by the US group’s largest labour union to win a seat on the board.
“To fix Boeing’s issues the company needs a strong engineering lead as its head coupled to a governance model which prioritises safety and quality,” Clark told the Financial Times on Tuesday.
“Some serious lateral thinking” was needed, the airline boss added.
Boeing on Monday unveiled a wide-ranging reshuffle of its leadership in a bid to get to grips with an escalating reputational crisis after a 737 Max door panel blew off mid-flight in January.
Calhoun, 66, is to leave at the end of the year, while board chair Larry Kellner said he would depart in May. Stan Deal, head of the commercial planes division since 2019, was immediately replaced by chief operating officer Stephanie Pope.
Boeing has faced growing frustration from its airline customers, after the company was forced to slow production of the 737 Max as it sought to resolve manufacturing flaws.
Emirates in November placed an order for 95 wide-body Boeing 777 and 787 jets, used for long-haul flights, valued at $52bn at list prices.
“Whether, yet again, this changing of the guard will resolve Boeing’s issues only time will tell, but time, unfortunately, is not on their side,” Clark said.
Industry executives and analysts have welcomed the management overhaul but all eyes are now on the next board chair, Steve Mollenkopf, who will lead a new chief executive search.
Pope, who is an obvious contender, has a background in finance. Dave Gitlin, a Boeing director who is chief executive of Carrier, which manufactures heating and cooling systems, has a background in aerospace, previously holding roles at Collins Aerospace and United Technologies.
A third possible contender is Patrick Shanahan, head of Boeing’s supplier Spirit AeroSystems, which supplied the door plug that blew out during the Alaska Airlines flight in January. He previously spent three decades at the plane maker. Greg Smith, American Airlines chair and a former Boeing finance director, is seen as another potential candidate.
The International Association of Machinists District 751, which represents 32,000 workers at factories in the US state of Washington, said a union representative would bring “a unique ability to understand the production system” to the 13-person board.
“It is little wonder that the machinists union wants a seat on the board, simply to ensure that the voice of the factory floor is part and parcel of the decision process and is fully integrated into the governance model’s risk management strategies,” Clark said.
Clark, one of the most high-profile figures in aviation, has been increasingly critical of Boeing’s manufacturing processes and the quality issues which have plagued its aircraft.
Last month, he told the FT that Emirates would for the first time send its own engineers to observe the production process of the 777 at Boeing and its supplier Spirit AeroSystems.
Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary, another major Boeing customer, has expressed his “disappointment” at Calhoun’s departure, blaming the layers of management below him running the commercial business near Seattle.
“Seattle is a logistics business. It is grind and detail and logistics, and that is what has been missing there over the past 12 months,” O’Leary said.
Robert Johnson is a UK-based business writer specializing in finance and entrepreneurship. With an eye for market trends and a keen interest in the corporate world, he offers readers valuable insights into business developments.
