After his meeting with Kelly Ortberg, United CEO Scott Kirby went from being a harsh critic of Boeing to a staunch supporter of the manufacturer’s recovery.
Few airline CEOs have been as vocal in their criticism of Boeing as the CEO of United Airlines. Even Alaska itself, the airline that suffered from the 737 MAX-9 accident, was not as vocal as Scott Kirby. And it was the reaction of airline CEOs like these that led Boeing to fire its previous CEO.
This factor may also have influenced the Boeing board’s decision to select an outsider like Kelly Ortberg to lead the company. So far, however, we have not heard directly from the airlines what they think of Ortberg.
The United boss met the new Boeing CEO at lunch this week and became a fan.”Not only was I encouraged by what I heard, but I am also more confident that Boeing is on the right track.”, Kirby wrote.
The MAX-9 accident prompted United’s CEO to criticize Boeing so harshly because the incident affected the airline in two ways. First, the immediate grounding of the MAX-9 was a major blow to United, as the company has a large fleet of these jets.
The United CEO is not the only one supporting the new Boeing CEO
Second, it soon became clear that the situation would delay development of the remaining 737 MAX variants: the MAX-7 and the MAX-10. United had no orders for the former, but by that time the airline had 277 orders and 200 options for the 737 MAX-10!
At the end of January, Kirby said in an interview: “…the flight bans for MAX-9 are probably the last straw for us…“A few days earlier, he flew to Paris to talk to Airbus about further A321neo orders to replace the MAX-10. Calhoun’s departure was announced about two months later, after other airline CEOs voiced similar criticism.
After their meeting, United CEO Kelly highlighted Ortberg’s engineering background and said Boeing needed him. He also praised Ortberg’s decision to settle in Seattle.…to be close to his front teams,“, as Kirby put it.
In recent days, Ortberg has also received praise from Adam Mulally, a former CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes who was passed over for the Boeing CEO post about two decades ago. Mulally later rescued Ford Motor Company from bankruptcy.
Mulally praised the new Boeing CEO for his work as an engineer and manager at Rockwell Collins, adding that as a young Rockwell engineer, Ortberg was involved in the development of key avionics components for the 777. Ortberg had previously cited Mulally as one of his role models.
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