Capital Economy, Business and Finance
Boeing announced a new CEO, Robert “Kelly” Ortberg, on Wednesday leading to a slight bump in its stock price – up 1.3 per cent in early trading. This is an enormous vote of confidence by the markets in Ortberg, former CEO of avionics company Rockwell Collins, as Boeing announced a second quarter operating loss of $1.4 billion on the same day, missing earnings estimates for the 17th time since the second quarter of 2019. The company is shipping half the number of 135 Max jets it planned to and production on the 737 Max hasn’t recovered since a door panel blew off one of the jets during a flight in January, recalling two fatal 737 Max crashes in 2018 and 2019. Meanwhile the Boeing Starliner carrying two NASA astronauts back from the International Space Station remains tethered to the orbiting astral base while Boeing and NASA try to work out why it’s leaking helium and its thrusters aren’t working properly. Ortberg has “a well-earned reputation for building strong teams and running complex engineering and manufacturing companies,” according to Boeing’s chair Steven Mollenkopf. He’ll need it.
