Written by Tim Heffer and Alexander Cornwell
DUBAI (Reuters) – The head of Dubai's Emirates Airlines urged Boeing Co (NYSE:) to choose an engineering and business heavyweight to lead a major overhaul of the U.S. airline giant, and said the job of ending the planemaker's recent crisis of confidence “must be accomplished.” “. .
“Is it repairable and salvageable? Yes, it is. Will it put things back where they should be? It has to be. You will only be able to achieve this with very strong leadership, focused on doing the right thing,” Emirates President. Tim Clark told reporters on the sidelines of the Major Airlines Summit.
He said it could take five years for a manufacturer to get back, after a series of safety and industry issues, to the point where it can seamlessly meet existing and new demand.
Emirates Airlines is the world's largest buyer of long-haul aircraft to feed its hub in the Gulf region.
Boeing is searching for a new CEO after announcing that Dave Calhoun will step down by the end of the year following back-to-back crises exacerbated by the explosion of a loose door plug on board an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 plane in January.
Clark, who was one of Boeing's harshest critics during the crisis, told Reuters he had never met Calhoun, who was named CEO in January 2020 after two 737 MAX planes crashed in 2018 and 2019, killing nearly 350 people.
Boeing had no immediate comment on his statements.
In December, Boeing appointed Stephanie Pope to the newly created position of group-wide chief operating officer in a move seen at the time as positioning it as a leading contender to take over from Calhoun sometime in the next few years.
Asked what he would like to see in Boeing's new CEO, Clark said: “I think people who have a really broad ability in aerospace engineering, who are also good business managers, are the people you need to bring back and sort through.” Time will tell if Stephanie Pope will be able to do it (as well as) anyone.
“But we need planes. We can't have constant delays. We have a business to run, and if we have to foot the bill to refurbish all of these (existing) planes, it should be put at Boeing's door,” he added.
Emirates, the largest operator of the 777 family, is undertaking what it calls the largest cabin refurbishment of its existing aircraft as it awaits the first delivery of the Boeing 777X, scheduled to be delayed by at least five years from 2020.
Clark said Boeing has not yet been able to provide an accurate delivery of the first plane. It has been said that it will be in 2025.
Emirates Airlines said that it intends to meet Bob, in her capacity as the newly appointed head of aircraft manufacturing at Boeing, on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the International Air Transport Association, which will be held in Dubai during the next two days.
The unit Bob previously led, Global Services, was Boeing's only profitable division in the first nine months of 2023.
In March, following the explosion incident, it announced Calhoun's planned departure earlier than expected and appointed Bob as head of the commercial aircraft division, replacing Stan Dale who had been dismissed as part of the same shake-up.
Analysts say Bob is still cited in some quarters as a contender for the CEO position along with several outside contenders including Spirit AeroSystems (NYSE:) CEO Pat Shanahan.
