In the aftermath of part of a Boeing 737 Max 9 plane falling out in the middle of an Alaska Airlines flight, Ryanair CEO, Michael O’Leary, has told the Financial Times that the aircraft manufacturer needs to “significantly improve quality control”.
The incident led to the grounding by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of all 737 Max 9s with the configuration of the Alaska Airlines one. Sine then, preliminary investigations have revealed faulty hardware, loose bolts, ignored warnings from pilots and Boeing CEO, Dave Calhoun, admitted the company’s mistake in the incident.
Talking about the incident as well as the struggle of manufacturers to keep up with demand and fulfil orders in the face of supply chain pressures, O’Leary said that both Boeing and its European competitor, Airbus, are “running behind on their plans to increase monthly production”. “I think that both Airbus and Boeing, certainly Boeing, need to significantly improve quality control”, he went on.
The 737 is fine. But it doesn’t need these kind of short-term reputational issues.
Michael O’Leary, Ryanair CEO
O’Leary is not the only airline chief speaking up about Boeing’s issues. “They’ve had quality-control problems for a long time now, and this is just another manifestation of that. I think they’re getting their act together now, but this doesn’t help”, Emirates President, Tim Clark, told Bloomberg.
Despite not operating any 737 Max 9s with a plug-in panel instead of a mid-plane emergency door, the configuration grounded by the FAA following the blow-out, O’Leary still expects the incident to affect Ryanair. As one of Boeing’s largest customers, having placed a historic order of 300 jets worth over €36 billion in May 2023, the delivery delays combined with an unavoidable short term reluctance from passengers of flying on a 737, regardless of its configuration, will impact the airline by 2-2.5%, according to O’Leary.
This is not the first time O’Leary criticises Boeing and its management. One year prior to placing the large order, the CEO said the aircraft manufacturer needed either a “reboot or a boot up the ass”. Saying that management was “running around like headless chickens”, he prompted them to “get their shit together”.
