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Little hasmaxmaxmaxYour browser does not support the element.By Simon Wright, Industry editor, The Economist gone right for Boeing in 2024. The year started with a mid-flight blowout of a panel from the fuselage of a 737 passenger jet. There were no serious injuries, except those added to Boeing’s reputation, just as it seemed to be recovering from two fatal crashes involving the same model of aircraft six years ago. The firm’s competence was put in question again in September when malfunctioning software meant that Starliner, a capsule designed to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station, was forced to return to Earth empty. That left two spacefarers stranded in orbit awaiting a lift home in a craft from SpaceX, Boeing’s biggest rocketry rival. Then a strike by 33,000 workers halted production of most planes for nearly eight weeks. A company that was once a byword for engineering prowess has lost its way, seeming to put financial returns before technical excellence after a merger with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Between 2014 and 2020 Boeing handed out $61bn in dividends and share buybacks. But now its finances have fallen to Earth, too. Since 2020, when the pandemic severely dented demand for plane travel, Boeing’s annual losses have totalled $23bn.In March, Dave Calhoun, Boeing’s boss since 2020, accepted responsibility for the company’s ills and agreed to stand down. In 2025 all eyes will be on Kelly Ortberg, a seasoned aerospace executive who took over in August. What can he do to restore Boeing to its former heights?The most important job for Mr Ortberg, an outsider in a firm that prefers to appoint leaders from within, is to restore Boeing’s culture of engineering excellence and improve quality control. But breaking a company’s culture is much easier than remaking it. Mr Ortberg needs to take his time to understand a complex organisation employing 145,000 people worldwide before making substantial changes. Rumour has it that he wants to relocate Boeing’s headquarters from Virginia back to Seattle; that would be a sensible way to put bosses closer to operations.Other tasks require more urgent attention. Despite its travails, the Boeing 737 is a good plane with a huge backlog of orders. Boeing’s waiting list, however, is not as long as that of Airbus, its European competitor in the duopoly that supplies large passenger jets.Calls to launch an entirely new plane should be resisted as unaffordable and unnecessary. More important is restoring relations with regulators, who have capped production of the 737 at 38 a month until Boeing can convince them that the safety lapses that led to the panel blowout have been dealt with. Delivering more planes would also assuage the anger of customers, clamouring for new fuel-efficient jets. Bulging order books mean there are no free delivery slots for new planes at Airbus for many years. Customers have little choice but to stick with Boeing. But late deliveries will give airlines leverage to seek even bigger discounts.Starliner’s troubles highlight problems at other parts of the company, where competition is also heating up. While Boeing has struggled with huge cost overruns in its space division, Elon Musk’s SpaceX has gone from strength to strength. Defence, usually a reliable bulwark against the cyclical nature of commercial aerospace, has floundered, even as defence spending around the world is at a multi-decade high. Overambition in fulfilling fixed-price contracts has led to losses, and Boeing has had less success in bidding for lucrative new programmes.Mr Ortberg’s to-do list is lengthy and onerous. Fixing Boeing is a job that will take years rather than months. But having fallen so low, the only way is up.
