Boeing and United struggle, and CEOs are getting fed up: Airlines news roundup
Plus, a budget airline CEO says his big pay package is a bargain
Boeing continues to really go through it, with its airline customers criticizing the company publicly and looking to do so to its face. One of those customers, United Airlines, is having a safety-related PR headache of its own. Meanwhile, the CEO of a different customer, Ryanair, is having a great week.
Take a moment to catch up on what’s been happening in the world of airlines.
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Boeing got dealt another reputational blow, but not because of something one of its planes did. Instead it’s because the credit ratings agency Fitch announced that it was affirming the rating for plane maker’s long-term default risk, but downgrading the outlook on that rating to “stable” from “positive.” A small change that speaks volumes.
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It’s another setback for Boeing on the long, long road to a commercial comeback made longer by the continued fallout from the Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 door plug blowout in January. The giant cash hoard the company had built up has sprung a big leak.
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A gaggle of airline CEOs put on their best face at an industry conference to make their case to investors in the general public about the future of their respective companies. If their frustrations with Boeing are at a boil, they’re only letting a simmer show.
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Airline CEOs are tired of waiting on their Boeing planes. The company had already been running behind on delivering its next-generation 737 Max jets to customers — and then a door plug blowout on an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 flight made those delays even worse. Passenger are suing. The U.S. government is investigating. And now a group of Boeing customers are seeking meetings with the plane maker’s board of directors to get some answers about what exactly is going on.
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You may have heard some scary things about United Airlines flights recently. Well, United CEO Scott Kirby hopes those off-putting headlines don’t stop you from experiencing the pleasure of being one of his company’s passengers.
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United Airlines is having a rough go of it lately. It saw six safety incidents within the span of a week.
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United Airlines is having a hard month. Their planes keep having safety incidents. There have been 11 in the U.S. so far, according to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. Nobody’s been injured, so that’s good. But it can’t feel great to have to reassure your customers that flying on your planes is perfectly safe. Here’s a timeline of United’s safety incidents this month.
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There are two things everyone knows about Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary. One: He can have a way with words sometimes. Two: He and his airline are really, really cheap.