(Reuters) – United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby on Thursday predicted Boeing’s recovery to be “faster than most expect” after meeting with the planemaker’s new top boss, Kelly Ortberg.
“I was not only encouraged by what I heard, but I also came away with a renewed confidence that Boeing is on the right path,” Kirby said in a LinkedIn post after a lunch meeting with Ortberg.
United, a prominent customer of Boeing, was reported to be furious with the planemaker after the U.S. aviation regulator temporarily grounded over 170 737 MAX 9 jets after a mid-air cabin panel blowout in January.
The incident forced Boeing’s former CEO, Dave Calhoun, to apologize to Kirby. The carrier took a $200 million hit in the first quarter from the grounding.
Last month, Boeing named aerospace industry veteran Ortberg as its CEO to turn around the company beset by legal and regulatory problems.
“His engineering background at Rockwell Collins, combined with an instinct to be close to his frontline teams in Seattle, makes for a winning combination,” Kirby said in the post.
“… (He) understands the cultural changes needed to turn things around and is committed to listening to his employees and customers.”
During his tenure at aircraft electronics supplier Rockwell Collins, Ortberg oversaw the company’s development programs for the Airbus A350 XWB, Boeing 787 and the Bombardier CSeries.
(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh, Abhijith Ganapavaram in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)
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