After Dennis Muilenburg, who lost his CEO title in mid-October and was relegated to the grade of General Manager, the Seattle-based manufacturer suddenly fired on Tuesday, Kevin McAllister, head of the commercial aviation division.
The Boeing 737 MAX crisis, which started mid-March after two accidents in which 346 passengers and crew lost their lives, is beginning to cause some shuffling in the top of the Boeing hierarchy. After Dennis Muilenburg, who lost his CEO title in mid-October and was downgraded to General Manager, the manufacturer from Seattle, Washington, suddenly dismissed on Tuesday, October 22, Kevin McAllister, the head of its commercial aviation division. He will be replaced by Stan Deal, who previously held the position of CEO of the service division.
Two years ago, recruited from General Electric, nonetheless Mr. McAllister was not with Boeing when the 737 MAX program started. However within the company some blame him for not being sufficiently involved in defending the aircraft.These sudden changes in the manufacturer’s organizational chart are no coincidence which occurred on the eve of the publication of the aircraft manufacturer’s disastrous quarterly results on Wednesday. They also reflect the significant drop in deliveries. While Boeing delivered 190 aircraft in the third quarter of 2018, only 63 were delivered to business customers a year later.
As the 737 MAX downtime increases, the cost for the aircraft manufacturer also increases and as of now it is expected to be around $18 billion.
For nearly eight months, the 737 MAXs have been accumulating in Boeing’s parking garages, which represent a financial hole for the company. After all, it is only at the moment of delivery that the aircraft manufacturer and the engine manufacturer are paid by their customers. As MAX’s downtime increases, the bill increases.
According to some analysts, it could now reach almost $18 billion (about €16 billion) if you add the amounts paid to the families of the victims of the two accidents, and the compensation and sanctions that the aircraft manufacturer will have to pay to airlines that have been robbed of their aircraft, and that have already had to cancel tens of thousands of flights and close down certain destinations because they do not have an aircraft. However, Boeing is not financially beat. It has more than 5,000 MAX in order and no customer has yet cancelled.
Will the 737 MAX fly again in January 2020?
For his part, the aircraft manufacturer expects the aircraft to fly back as soon as possible. In a statement released Tuesday, the manufacturer said “the MCAS [Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System] of 737 MAX [suspected of causing both accidents] was updated and now has three additional layers of protection that will prevent such accidents from happening again.
On Friday 18 October Patrick Ky, president of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), predicted that the 737MAX could fly again already in January 2020. “For me it will be early next year, if all goes well. As we know today, we have our test flights scheduled for mid-December, which for us means that we will have to decide in January on a return to service,” Ky told Reuters.
This optimism no longer seems appropriate after internal communication between pilots who have tested the MAX, showed that the manufacturer was aware of the problems with its new mid-range aircraft since February.
In the next few days the aircraft manufacturer will be going through some tough times. Dennis Muilenburg will be heard for the first time next week by U.S. legislators: he will be heard by the U.S. Senate on Tuesday 29 October and then the next day by the House of Representatives.
