Boeing’s Pope: Predictability And Reliability Are The Focus

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) will go into the Paris Air Show facing the turmoil from the July 12 crash of an Air India 787, but still with a renewed sense of confidence having garnered hundreds of new aircraft orders in recent weeks and restored its 737 MAX monthly production rate to 38.

BCA president and CEO Stephanie Pope, in an exclusive interview with ATW that was conducted 10 days before the crash of AI Flight 171, made clear that new orders were not the manufacturer’s focus.

Pope, who is also Boeing executive VP, emphasized there was still “a lot of work to do” with BCA’s recovery since the door plug in an Alaska Airlines’ 737-9 blew out inflight in January 2024, prompting NTSB and FAA investigations.

Speaking in New Delhi at the conclusion of the IATA AGM there, Pope said the BCA message at Paris would be “a continuation of where we are. It’s about meeting with our customers, updating them on our progress, listening to any issues or concerns and just building our momentum in this recovery.

“If we get a few orders along the way, that would be great. But we are not going to be focused on orders. Demand isn’t our problem. It’s about continuing to drive the confidence with our customers and suppliers on our ability to be predictable and reliable and have some resiliency going forward.”

Clearly, the ongoing investigation into the Air India crash will change the mood and messaging among Boeing executives at the show, but BCA still has every reason to feel better about its status at Paris versus the 2024 Farnborough Airshow. That was also the year of the Alaska Flight 1282 incident which led to FAA grounding 737-9s with door plugs, an NTSB investigation of the incident, and an FAA investigation into BCA’s production processes.

In the immediate aftermath of the Air India crash, Boeing president and CEO Kelly Ortberg issued this statement: “Our deepest condolences go out to the loved ones of the passengers and crew on board Air India Flight 171, as well as everyone affected in Ahmedabad. I have spoken with Air India Chairman N. Chandrasekaran to offer our full support, and a Boeing team stands ready to support the investigation led by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau.”

BCA, meanwhile, arrives at Paris with the earlier news that it had restored its MAX monthly production rate to 38—which remains the FAA’s imposed cap—and secured orders for more than 300 airliners in spring, including the largest single widebody order in its history, with 130 787s, 30 of the new 777-9s, and 50 widebody options for Qatar Airways.

Nevertheless, Pope was careful to temper any idea that Boeing was bullish about achieving rate 38 on the MAX or the new orders.

“I would say the overall sentiment is more positive, but we still have a lot of work to do. And I keep reminding everybody that we are in the early miles of this marathon,” she said. “I think where we’re at now is we have an [FAA] approved [safety and quality production] plan; we are executing that plan. Many of our customers have seen it at Charleston and at Reston and Everett, and we are seeing the progress in terms of results with improving quality and predictability around our delivery and our performance.”

“What the customers are seeing to date, while it’s early, is that we are increasing our production rate, and our quality is continuing to improve. It really does come back to the discipline around the safety and quality plan and it’s about how we are running our factory—we are building our airplanes differently from what we did a year ago. We are using the safety management system; we have wrapped that around our production system, and we are using that to deliver,” Pope said.

Reaching rate 38 on the MAX at the end of May was “a line in the sand for us that’s important to our company,” Pope acknowledged, but even so, the celebrations are muted.  

“I keep telling the team we are going to be very cautious. We won’t officially declare a rate until we’ve been at it a couple of months, but it’s very important,” she said.  

“Kelly really gave us the time after the work stoppage; we did not try to go to 38 overnight,” Pope said. “We say we are a newer workforce, so we are going to give everyone time to get back and get retrained and really set the system up for success. So, that’s what we are seeing as we ramp up and I think that’s why it’s so important to our customers.

“We want to make sure we present the airplane for delivery at the date we told the customer we were going to present it and with the quality they would expect the first time.”

Pope expressed satisfaction with how the 777X test and certification program was progressing after years of delays and uncertainty. A full-size 777X interior section will be among Boeing’s Paris displays.

“We’ve flown that airplane over 4,000 flight hours. All four airplanes are flying now in the test program. We are aiming to complete most of the certification work by the end of the year. So, there’s no change to the program; we have risk around that, and we have opportunities, but I think we are progressing now to where the scope, the statement of work, is getting more and more known,” Pope said.

“This summer is really important to us as we work through the final flight tests. We have a lot of work on the aerodynamics; we have been doing work on brakes and engine performance; we have resolved the thrust link issue,” she said. “So, we will continue to execute the flight-test program and validate the safety and performance and reliability of that airplane. It’s performing really well. And then we will work with the FAA and take their lead to get that certified. But we are seeing a lot of progress.”

On Boeing’s relationship with FAA, which continues its oversight of BCA’s production processes, Pope said the agency had been “very firm but fair” and Boeing would continue to follow the agency’s lead.

Critical to BCA’s progress, Pope emphasized, has been the company’s focus this past year on changing culture, listening and responding to feedback from employees, and rolling out new guidance on company values and behaviors.

“Boeing is its people,” she said. “I’m really proud of our team for their resiliency and commitment as they worked through all these challenges that we’ve had over the last year. It has been a lot of change.”

“I believe this safety and quality plan is working because it was built on feedback from our employees,” Pope said. “We did stand down across all our factories for an entire day. We shut everything down and we asked the people who do the job, and who know better than anyone, what are your issues, what are the concerns?”

The full interview with Stephanie Pope will be published in the July issue of ATW magazine.