DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — One of Boeing's largest customers called on its latest management team to act, voicing frustration over the American plane maker's safety crisis and resulting delays in delivering orders.
“We're not really happy with what's going on. We always wanted this aircraft to enter the fleet when it was promised – and there is a delay, not just for us,” Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman and CEO of Dubai's flagship airline Emirates, said Dan CNBC's Murphy at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai on Tuesday.
With 245 passenger aircraft and five 778 freighters on order, Emirates is Boeing's largest widebody customer. But the maker's aircraft deliveries fell to their lowest level since mid-2021 in the first quarter of 2024 as the company faces increased scrutiny after a door plug popped out in mid-air on one of its 737 Max 9 planes in January.
The company delivered 83 aircraft – most of them narrow-body 737s – in the three months ended March 31, compared with 157 in the previous quarter and 130 aircraft in the same period last year.
Al Maktoum, who leads the world's largest long-haul airline and co-founded it in 1985, shared the views of many other airline CEOs when it came to expectations for Boeing.
“I think they have to put a lot of pressure on to make sure they deliver to the customer what they promised,” he said.
Asked if he had a message for the aircraft maker, Al Maktoum said: “I always say: pull yourself together and just do it. And I think they can do it.”
CNBC has reached out to Boeing for comment.
The chairman didn’t indicate that Emirates would cancel the Boeing orders or shift them to its French rival. airbus.
“No, no – I can’t say exactly what we’re planning,” he said when asked about the likelihood of such a move. “But I think you see that we are overhauling a large number of aircraft within the existing fleet. … And there will be no shortage of capacity in Dubai.”
He cited the airline's expansion of part of its existing fleet, including the giant double-decker Airbus A380s, as helping to provide sufficient passenger capacity.
Boeing's recently appointed new management team is now tasked with tackling the company's worst crisis since 2018-2019, when two of its new 737 Max jets crashed within six months, killing 346 people.
After the door collapse at Alaska Airlines in January, the Federal Aviation Administration six-week audit of Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems “found multiple instances in which the companies allegedly failed to comply with manufacturing quality control requirements,” the FAA said in March. Spirit AeroSystems makes Boeing Max fuselages
“The FAA has found violations in Boeing’s control of its manufacturing process, parts handling and storage, and product inspection,” it said. The regulator said it informed Boeing's leadership that it “needs to contemplate the outcomes of the audit as a part of its comprehensive corrective motion plan to deal with systemic quality control issues and address its “safety culture.”
In an earlier statement cited by CNBC, a Boeing spokesperson said in response to the FAA findings that the corporate continues to “implement immediate changes and develop a comprehensive action plan to strengthen safety and quality.”
The company's website says it continues to support the U.S. NTSB and FAA investigations into the Jan. 5 accident.
image credit : www.cnbc.com