The CEO of Boeing will not make it to the end of the year. The US aircraft manufacturer's board of directors announced the appointment of Kelly Ortberg on Wednesday, July 31. He will take over from Dave Calhoun on August 8. This announcement reflects the very poor financial results of the aircraft manufacturer, which on Wednesday reported a loss of $1.44 billion (around €1.33 billion) between April and June, after delivering fewer aircraft than expected.
Appointed to the presidency of Boeing in early 2020 following the two 737 crashes that claimed the lives of 346 passengers and crew in 2018 and 2019, Calhoun, a trained financier, was tasked with getting the company back on track and improving its financial situation. This mission, however, was a double failure. Since January, when a door plug on an Alaska Airlines aircraft was ejected into the air, the CEO had been under intense pressure. Not a week went by without a Boeing being involved in an incident. The manufacturer's reputation was severely tarnished by these recurring quality issues. In March, Calhoun had to announce his planned departure by the end of 2024. The board of directors, however, decided to speed things up.
Faced with its industrial failings, Boeing – largely dominated by Airbus on the medium-haul market (the world's best-selling aircraft) and on the verge of being overtaken on the long-haul market (the most profitable aircraft) – had to react vigorously.
With the appointment of Ortberg, an engineer is taking the helm. Ortberg, 64, is a veteran of the aerospace industry, where he worked for more than 35 years, including stints at Rockwell Collins (now Collins Aerospace), a subsidiary of the US group RTX and one of the world's leading suppliers in the sector.
To revitalize Boeing, Ortberg, who retired in 2021, has agreed to come out of retirement. His appointment could herald, if not a revolution, at least a new era in the management of the aircraft manufacturer. Following Boeing's 1997 acquisition of McDonnell Douglas, it was former executives of the ex-rival, with a financial profile and a strong focus on profitability to the detriment of industrial issues, who took the reins of the Seattle-based company. This choice would have far-reaching consequences. In the early 2010s, when the Chinese ordered the engine for their future medium-haul aircraft, now the C919, from the Safran-General Electric partnership, Boeing decided not to launch a new aircraft. To save money, the company opted for a third version, called Max, of its old 737, designed in the 1960s.