Boeing 737 Max disaster casts long shadow as planemaker tries to rebuild fortunes
In a vast shed near Seattle, Boeing is ramping up production of its bestselling plane, the 737 Max. Rows of trolleys marked with team names such as “Mario Bros” and “Wildcat” wait for technicians to complete a daily dance of tools and parts. Getting the choreography right pays: production stoppages at the Renton factory can filter through to US GDP figures.
Never has the value of smooth operation been more apparent to the jetmaker than in the past three years. The factory lines were stopped for more than a year following two fatal crashes of the 737 Max. In 2018 and 2019, a total of 346 people died when hardware malfunctions and badly designed software caused the planes to override pilots and plunge from the sky.
Boeing, one of America’s manufacturing champions, is now hoping to show that it is ready to move on from the Max disaster, even as it continues to struggle with the fallout from Covid-19 – which rocked the entire industry – and tries to work out the uncertain future for aviation technology.
On the first visit by journalists this month to Boeing’s factories in Seattle since before the Max crashes, executives sought to portray a company that is ready for recovery and growth once more. Greg Hyslop, Boeing’s design boss, said there were “reasons for optimism” about the planemaker’s technological abilities.
Optimism is coming from the top. Dave Calhoun, promoted to chief executive in early 2020 after his predecessor’s botched handling of the Max scandal, last week said “demand for airplanes is as robust as I’ve ever seen it – I think it will get more robust”. He has previously described 2022 as a “turning-point year”, even if he warned that supply chain problems could last to the end of 2023.
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