Troubled Boeing’s bosses to step down after safety crises
THE boss of embattled plane maker Boeing is to leave amid a deepening crisis over its safety record.
Yesterday the US industry giant confirmed chief executive Dave Calhoun will step down by the end of this year.
Chairman Larry Kellner is also going, along with the head of the commercial airline arm.
The top-tier departures follow pressure on Boeing after an unused door blew out of a Boeing 737 Max in January shortly after take-off.
Company shares have lost roughly one-quarter of their value since the incident.
It was the most recent in a series of safety crises that have shaken the industry’s confi- dence in Boeing and hampered its ability to increase production.
Calhoun, 66, was brought in as chief executive following crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed nearly 350 people.
Steve Mollenkopf, former CEO of tech company Qualcomm, has been appointed Boeing’s new chair and will be leading the search for Calhoun’s replacement.
Some investors expressed concern that this shake-up would not be enough to address these issues. Cameron Dawson, chief investment officer at advisory firm New Edge Wealth, said: “We’ve long thought that the issues at Boeing have been seated in cultural challenges.”
Last week a group of US airline bosses sought meetings with Boeing directors without Calhoun to express worries over the Alaska Airlines incident.
Boeing is facing heavy regulatory scrutiny and US authorities curbed output while it attempts to fix its safety and quality problems.
The company is in talks to buy its former subsidiary Spirit AeroSystems to try to get more control over its supply chain. Calhoun said in a letter to staff: “The eyes of the world are on us, and I know that we will come through this moment a better company.
“We will remain squarely focused on completing the work we have done together to return our company to stability after the extraordinary challenges of the past five years, with safety and quality at the forefront of everything we do.”
Michael O’Leary, boss of budget airline Ryanair, Boeing’s biggest customer in Europe, said: “We welcome these muchneeded management changes.”