by Lacey Pfalz
Last updated: 12:25 PM ET, Tue January 23, 2024
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said the airline would begin making a contingency plan without American aircraft manufacturer Boeing following recent high-profile safety incidents and delays in the airline’s aircraft delivery by the manufacturer.
In a discussion on CNBC, Kirby said the manufacturing problems that have grounded 79 Boeing 737 MAX 9 jets is “probably the straw that broke the camel’s back for us,” and that United would have to at least consider other alternatives.
The major competitor with Boeing is the European manufacturer Airbus.
The announcement, which comes on the heels of a January 5 incident in which an Alaska Airlines MAX 9 aircraft had a panel blow out, leaving a hole in the plane during flight, follows the airline’s latest year-end report and 2024 projections.
Last year, United received 24 less Boeing aircraft than it expected due to manufacturing flaws that have led to delays. Additionally, the MAX 10 jets are around five years behind schedule for being certified by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
“I’m disappointed that the manufacturing challenges do keep happening,” said Kirby. “This isn’t new…We’re Boeing’s biggest customer in the world, they’re our biggest partner in the world. We need Boeing to succeed…But they’ve been having these consistent manufacturing challenges, and they need to take action.”
Boeing has been increasingly under pressure and public scrutiny in recent years, and especially so with their MAX aircraft for various safety issues, including two plane crashes: one in Indonesia in 2018 and the other in Ethiopia in 2019.
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