Boeing hopes to ‘re-earn’ trust
Is working on deals to sell more Max jets
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A senior Boeing executive said Saturday the company knows it has to reearn the public’s trust as it works to win approval from U.S. regulators to get its grounded 737 Max jets flying again after crashes that killed 346 people.
Stan Deal, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said the company’s “number one focus remains safely returning the Max.”
Chicago-based Boeing has spent the past year making changes to flight software that played a role in crashes of two of its 737 Max jets.
Deal said the company knows it has “to restore the confidence of our customers and the flying public in Boeing.”
“We know we got to reearn that trust,” Deal said.
Deal, whose division oversees the jet, spoke to reporters in Dubai ahead of the biennial Dubai Airshow, which starts today and is expected to produce major deals between commercial and military manufacturers and Mideast buyers.
Boeing has customers in the region financially impacted by the grounding of the 737 Max, including budget carrier Flydubai, which has more than a dozen of the jets in its fleet and more on order. Boeing is working to compensate both its customers and the families of victims who died in the crashes.
Internal Boeing documents have revealed that before the crashes company employees had raised concerns about the automated flight-control system that played a part in pushing the planes’ noses down until the jets plummeted, as well as the hectic pace of airplane production at Boeing.