Boeing Co. directors plan to meet with top executives from some of their biggest airline customers who are increasingly frustrated that the plane maker’s crisis is hurting their business.
Boeing Chief Executive Dave Calhoun will not attend the meetings scheduled to begin next week, people familiar with the matter said. Boeing Chief Executive Larry Kellner is leading the unusual listening tour and will be joined by two to three other directors at each meeting, although the mix of attendees will vary, the people, who did not want to be identified as the planners, said.
For Kellner and other board members, the initiative will provide unfiltered feedback from some of the world’s largest airlines as Boeing navigates another crisis surrounding its most important product, the 737 Max plane. Calhoun supported the sessions, a Boeing official said.
The plans underscore customers’ growing frustration with Calhoun and Stan Deal, the head of Boeing’s commercial aircraft business, as a crisis centered on the plane maker’s manufacturing quality and safety persists nearly three months after a fuselage panel on a flying 737 exploded Max is showing signs of fading.
A comprehensive review of Boeing and its suppliers by the US Federal Aviation Administration was conducted Issue about the company’s safety culture, the agency’s top official said earlier 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 meeting of the trade group Airlines for America, the people said. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that the airlines had contacted the board.
Planning discussions are still ongoing and a schedule for the meetings has not yet been set, the people said. The meetings are expected to include major international airlines as well as the heads of major US airlines.
Boeing’s largest US customers include: American Airlines Group Inc., United Airlines Holdings Inc., Delta Airlines Inc., Southwest Airlines Co. and Alaska Air Group Inc.
“We are in constant and regular communication with Boeing, which is nothing new and will continue,” Southwest said in a statement.
The CEOs of several prominent airlines have expressed frustration with Boeing’s operating status since the accident in January.
Michael O’Leary, the outspoken CEO of Ryanair Holdings Plc called on Boeing to get its act together during an airline conference in Brussels on Wednesday. While expressing confidence in Calhoun and Chief Financial Officer Brian West, the Ryanair boss said: “The performance in Seattle was unacceptable.”
Ryanair will not attend the meetings with Boeing directors, the airline said in a statement.
Representatives for Boeing, American, United, Alaska and Airlines for America either did not comment or did not immediately respond.