United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby praised Kelly Ortberg in a LinkedIn post on Thursday, adding that the two had lunch together earlier in the week.
Kirby said he had “increased confidence that Boeing is on the right track and will recover faster than most expect.”
As head of the airline that uses more Boeing aircraft than any other, Kirby spoke openly about the aircraft manufacturer’s problems after Alaska Airlines went bankrupt in January.
Later that month, for example, he said United would look for alternatives to the 737 Max 10 after the accident led to even greater frustration over delays.
In June, Kirby criticized Boeing’s 737 Max for basing it on the original 737 model first built in the 1960s, rather than developing a new aircraft.
Shortly before Ortberg’s predecessor Dave Calhoun announced his resignation, Kirby and three other airline CEOs met with Boeing’s board, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Just one week after taking office, Ortberg has received a remarkable boost with Kirby’s support.
Kirby was pleased that Boeing’s new boss has an engineering background – something many customers had hoped for given the aircraft maker’s well-documented quality control problems in recent years.
Calhoun, on the other hand, worked in finance, while his predecessor Dennis Muilenburg was an engineer. Muilenburg was fired in 2019 in the wake of the 737 Max crisis.
Kirby also praised Ortberg for his plans to be based in Seattle, Boeing’s historic home. The aircraft maker was founded there in 1916 but moved its headquarters to Chicago in 2001 and then to Virginia in 2022.
This distance between corporate headquarters and factories has been criticized, with critics saying it leads to profit and production speed taking precedence over quality.
“Boeing’s more than 170,000 employees have the expertise, drive and commitment to restore the company to being one of the world’s best and most important brands,” Kirby wrote.
“And Kelly is the right leader to lead them there,” he added.
