Boeing board members, airlines will meet

Boeing Co. directors plan to meet with top executives of some of their largest airline customers, who are growing increasingly frustrated about the plane maker’s crisis tearing into their business.

Dave Calhoun, Boeing’s CEO, will not participate in the gatherings set to begin next week, said people familiar with the matter. Larry Kellner, the chairman of Boeing’s board, is spearheading the unusual listening tour and will be joined by two or three other directors for each session, although the cast of participants will vary, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans are confidential.

For Kellner and other board members, the initiative will provide unfiltered feedback from some of the largest airlines in the world as Boeing navigates another crisis centered on its most important product, the 737 Max jetliner. Calhoun is supportive of the sessions, a Boeing official said.

The plans underscore the growing customer frustration with Calhoun and Stan Deal, the head of Boeing’s commercial aircraft business, as a crisis centering on the plane maker’s manufacturing quality and safety shows no signs of receding nearly three months after a fuselage panel blew out of an airborne 737 Max.

A sweeping audit of Boeing and its suppliers by the Federal Aviation Administration raised concerns about the company’s safety culture, the agency’s top official said this week.

Kellner, a former airline CEO, initiated the customer outreach after several top U.S. airline chiefs discussed meeting as a group with Boeing directors during a recent session of the Airlines for America trade group, the people said. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported that the airline leaders had approached the board.

Planning discussions are still underway, and a meeting schedule has not been finalized, the people said. The sessions are expected to include the chiefs of the major U.S. carriers in addition to key international airlines.