Ryanair CEO angry: Boeing needs to ‘fix its problems’

Michael O’Leary swears at Boeing over delays in plane deliveries [aviso: este artigo contém citações com linguagem ofensiva]

Ryanair’s CEO (CEO) launched an obscenely stinging attack on Boeing’s management on Monday, saying company executives needed an “immediate restart or a kick in the ass”. [no original em inglês, “a reboot, or a boot up the ass”.]

“Right now, we feel that the Boeing management is roaming like a headless chicken, unable to sell planes, and even the planes that deliver them cannot deliver on time,” said Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair, Europe’s largest low-cost airline. , which has ordered nearly 400 planes from Boeing since 2010.

O’Leary and Boeing had an unusual public discussion last fall about talks about a potential order for the next-generation 737 MAX, with the Ireland-based company halting talks over a price dispute.

The CEO’s unusually blunt comments on Monday focused on delayed deliveries of Boeing’s planes. O’Leary said Ryanair should shorten its schedules in the spring and summer because the planes the aircraft manufacturer expects to deliver by the end of April likely won’t arrive until the end of June.

O’Leary was furious about the delays, especially since Ryanair is buying planes known as “white tails”, which Boeing has already built for other airlines. The original buyer of these planes canceled the order during an extended 20-month downtime for the 737 Max after two fatal crashes. [quando 157 pessoas morreram a bordo de um voo da Ethiopian Airlines que partiu de Addis Ababa em março de 2019; e quando 189 pessoas morreram no voo da Lion Air que caiu no mar em outubro de 2018].

“I can understand that there can be a lot of challenges in making new planes, but the planes that I actually built and built two years ago, all you have to do is put fuel in them and take them to Dublin, damn it. [no original em inglês: “put petrol in them and fucking fly them to Dublin”]. Seriously, I don’t understand why it’s two to three months late, “it smells like bad management performance in Seattle,” he said on a conference call with investors about the airline’s financial results.

Boeing did not respond to a request for comment on O’Leary’s comments.

management criticism

O’Leary said Boeing makes great planes, but it may be time to change its management.

“Either the current administration needs to improve their game or they need to change management, that will be our vision for life,” he said. “We are very happy to work with the current administration, but they need to improve the scope of what they have been doing over the past 12 months… We are a bona fide customer, but we are struggling with slow deliveries and the inability to make a deal on new planes despite the number of ‘white tails’ that You’re sitting on the floor in Seattle.”

Boeing has faced several problems in recent years, including the 737 Max crisis, which has cost more than $20 billion. [19,15 mil milhões de euros ao câmbio atual]. The company has also been hit with a suspension by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the delivery of its 787 Dreamliners. [Administração Federal de Aviação dos Estados Unidos] Last June due to quality control issues. It faced delays in approval of its next-generation aircraft, the 777X, forcing Boeing to delay the first delivery of the aircraft by two years, at least until 2025.

Boeing has also incurred huge losses in its military and aerospace business, including a recent fine of $660 million. [632 milhões de euros] Because of two aircraft that are under construction and will be used as new aircraft for the Air Force [aviões do presidente dos Estados Unidos]. It also addresses delays in building a spacecraft to carry American astronauts to the International Space Station.

“If they can work on nonsense [original: “get their shit together]”We’ll be ready to receive more planes in the summer of the 23rd and the summer of 24,” O’Leary said. “There is growth to be achieved.”

O’Leary also said the airline was ready to resume negotiations on an order for the new generation of 737 Max, though he stressed it had not yet received FAA approval, making reliance on it risky. Therefore, Ryanair is also considering buying 50 aircraft from the second-hand market. He also chose words for the Boeing sales team:

“You wonder what their sales team has been up to in the last two years,” O’Leary said. “Honestly, it looks like most of them are sitting at home in their damn pajamas. [original: “in their fucking jimjams”] Work from home instead of selling planes to customers.”

O’Leary also criticized Boeing’s recently announced plan to move the company’s headquarters from Chicago to Arlington, Virginia, a suburb of Washington.

“Moving headquarters from Chicago to Virginia, while it may be beneficial to the defense side of the business, does not solve the underlying fundamental problems on the civilian aircraft side of Seattle,” he said.

Other customer reviews

In addition to O’Leary, several other airlines have complained about recent conference calls – albeit in less varied language – about the problems they are having with the 787 or 777X’s delays.

Domhnall Slattery, CEO of Avolon, one of the world’s leading aircraft leasing companies, suggested earlier this month that Boeing needed a change in culture – and perhaps leadership.

“I think it’s fair to say Boeing has lost its way,” Slattery told the Airfinance Journal conference in comments reported by Reuters and confirmed by Avolon. “Boeing has a great history…they make great planes. But they say culture eats strategy for breakfast and that’s what happened at Boeing.”