Market Data 
- Boeing’s recent struggles have damaged its relationship with airlines.
- Its new chairman is attempting to rectify the situation by reaching out directly to airline CEOs.
- The company has come under heavy scrutiny since the Alaska Airlines blowout in January.
Boeing is on a mission to win back its customers’ trust following the Alaska Airlines blowout.
Its new chairman, Steve Mollenkopf, has decided to reach out directly to chief executives at a number of major airlines in an attempt to ease their strained relations, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Boeing’s reputation took a big knock following the January blowout incident, when a 737 Max 9 was left with a gaping hole in its fuselage after losing a door plug in midair, and the planemaker is facing increased scrutiny from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The FAA is now preventing Boeing from expanding production of the 737 Max to hold the company “accountable for its production quality issues.”
And while 737 Max production is capped at 38 such aircraft a month — Boeing is actually making less than that, Boeing CFO Brian West said in March, per Reuters.
The slowdown in deliveries has irritated major airlines, some of which have had to change their plans for the busy summer travel season.
Southwest, for example, paused hiring as it expects to receive 46 new 737 Max jets this year, down from 79, Reuters reported.
Shortly before CEO Dave Calhoun announced he would step down at the end of the year, The Wall Street Journal reported that airline CEOs had requested a meeting with Boeing’s board to voice their frustrations.
But Mollenkopf, a former Qualcomm CEO, decided to cancel formal meetings with the chief executives of some of its biggest customers — Alaska Airlines, Southwest Airlines, American Airlines, and United Airlines — and instead reach out to them directly.
People familiar with the situation told Bloomberg that the four airline bosses wanted to air their grievances about Boeing’s ongoing issues without Calhoun present.
Boeing declined to comment on the story.
It comes as Alaska Airlines said in a filing on Thursday that Boeing had paid it $160 million in compensation to account for the lost profits that came from the blowout incident and the subsequent grounding of its fleet of 737 Max 9 planes.
