Summary
- Mollenkopf, the new chariman of Boeing, canceled roundtable sessions with major airlines’ CEOs.
- Mollenkopf has been working in his role for less than two weeks after stepping in to replace Larry Kellner.
- Notable airline executives like Tim Clark and Michael O’Leary have weighed in on the recent crisis sweeping the plane maker.
The new chairman of the board of Boeing, Steve Mollenkopf, has canceled roundtable sessions with airline chief executive officers (CEO), which would have included some of the manufacturer’s biggest customers in the United States.
Direct meetings
According to a report by Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, Mollenkopf has axed the meetings planned with chief executives from the United States-based Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines.
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Instead, the new chairman is looking to reach out directly to the four airlines’ CEOs. The quartet requested a direct meeting with Boeing’s board of directors in late March 2024 as delivery delays, 737 MAX 7 and MAX 10 certification, and production quality lapses have continued to strain the relationship between the plane maker and its customers.

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Less than two weeks in his role
Mollenkopf became the aircraft manufacturer’s chairman of the board on March 25 after a shock announcement from Boeing that resulted in sweeping changes across the C-suite at the company. The new chairman replaced Larry Kellner, who informed Boeing’s board that he does not intend to stand for re-election at the next annual shareholder meeting.
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However, the announcement also said that David Calhoun, the current President and CEO of Boeing, would leave the company at the end of the year. Furthermore, Stan Deal, the President and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA), left the company with immediate effect, giving way to Stephanie Pope to handle the reigns of BCA as the subsidiary’s President and CEO.
Previously, Pope was the chief operating officer (COO) of Boeing since January. Before that, she was the CEO of Boeing Global Services between April 2022 and December 2023. According to her LinkedIn profile, Pope has been working at the plane maker since June 1994.

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Executives weighing in
At the same time, many other outspoken executives, such as Tim Clark, the President of Emirates, and Michael O’Leary, the CEO of Ryanair Group, weighed in on the seemingly continuous crisis of the plane maker.
In early February, Clark said that Boeing was in the “last chance saloon” as he spoke with the Financial Times (FT), with the executive expressing concerns about Boeing’s manufacturing processes. Still, Clark reiterated that Calhoun and Deal were on top of the process of fixing the quality lapses within the plane maker’s assembly lines and its suppliers.
Photo: katatonia82 | Shutterstock
Shortly after Boeing announced changes within its management structure, Ryanair issued a statement saying that it welcomed the C-level shuffle in Seattle. O’Leary added that these were much-needed changes and that Ryanair was looking forward to working with Pope to accelerate Boeing 737 aircraft deliveries to customers, including Ryanair, for the upcoming summer and autumn.
“We also look forward to continuing to work with Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun and CFO Brian West, and to helping Boeing recover its aircraft deliveries so that Ryanair can continue to grow strongly as Boeing’s no.1 customer here in Europe.”

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