BA Boeing Co

By Doug Cameron and Andrew Tangel 

Boeing Co. Chief Executive David Calhoun expressed confidence the 737 MAX would eventually fly passengers again despite repeated delays in winning regulatory approval for the troubled jet.

"It will fly safely," Mr. Calhoun said Wednesday, speaking publicly for the first time since taking over the top job at the plane maker last week. "When that happens, and pilots get on that airplane and support that airplane, I believe passengers will follow."

Mr. Calhoun said the company didn't see a risk the plane wouldn't resume service, even as it endures heightened scrutiny by the Federal Aviation Administration and overseas regulators. "I'm all in on it, and the company's all in on it, and I believe the FAA is all in on it," he told reporters.

His comments come a day after Boeing said it didn't expect regulators to approve the return of the MAX to commercial service until midyear, at least three months later than many analysts and industry executives had thought possible.

The global MAX fleet has been grounded since last March following two crashes that took a total of 346 lives.

Mr. Calhoun said the latest MAX forecast was a departure from the company's prior practice that included best-case scenarios. The new guidance was driven in large part by the company's announcement in early January that it was reversing a long-held position and would recommend simulator training for MAX pilots. Regulators in the U.S. and around the world increasingly have been leaning toward requiring the extra training.

"It took us too long to do it," said Mr. Calhoun, who met with Boeing employees in the Seattle area this week.

He said Boeing for months has been laying the groundwork for airlines to get access to MAX simulators, which have been in short supply around the globe. "We are way more ahead of that problem than has been written about," he said.

Mr. Calhoun faces a challenge in restoring public trust in the company itself. Days before his tenure began, the manufacturer released internal Boeing messages that suggested employees took a cavalier attitude toward safety and mocked regulators. In one message, a management pilot said: "I still haven't been forgiven by god for the covering up I did last year."

Mr. Calhoun, in the call with reporters on Wednesday, said he found the messages from Boeing employees, who were involved with the MAX's development, "totally appalling." But he also said he believed the messages were part of a "micro culture" within Boeing. "We will be on the lookout for every pocket that exhibits anything close to that behavior," Mr. Calhoun said.

Boeing earlier this month halted production of the MAX at its Renton, Wash., facility, setting off a ripple effect for the manufacturer, suppliers and customers. Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc, the biggest MAX supplier, has already announced plans to lay off 2,800 staff. Other suppliers said they are awaiting further guidance on production from Boeing, which next week releases financial results that are likely to show the aerospace giant nursing a full-year loss.

Many airlines have already removed the plane from schedules through at least early June. United Airlines Holdings Inc. said Wednesday it didn't plan to fly the plane this summer.

Mr. Calhoun said Boeing didn't expect to lay off any production workers even though the company expects the plane's grounding to last for months. He said MAX production would likely resume "months" before the aircraft was cleared by regulators.

Boeing has set aside more than $9 billion to cover customer compensation and higher costs to work through an order backlog of 4,500 MAX jets, but analysts expect this figure to climb to $16 billion or more.

Mr. Calhoun, 62 years old, said he intends to work "well past 65," beyond the company's typical retirement age for executives.

"This is way more important than my life in many ways and I'm going to do it," he said. "The board can have me as long as they want me."

An extended tenure would allow work to start on a new clean-sheet aircraft design to replace Boeing's original plan for a middle-of-the-market jet it aimed to have in service by around 2025 to counter soaring sales of a rival plane made by Airbus SE.

Mr. Calhoun said initial work on such a plane may start with "flight control systems" rather than the airframe or engines, given regulators' renewed focus on the interaction between pilots and technology in the cockpit in the wake of the two MAX crashes.

Write to Doug Cameron at doug.cameron@wsj.com and Andrew Tangel at Andrew.Tangel@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 22, 2020 17:03 ET (22:03 GMT)

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