United Airlines Leadership Attributes Boeing MAX Issues to Lack of Experience

United Airlines Executive Vice President of Finance Gerry Laderman said he believes it’s possible that a lack of employee experience may have contributed to Boeing’s problems, according to a Reuters report from the Airline Economics conference in Dublin.

"Experience counts and they need to have a good, experienced team righting the ship," he said.

"Part of the problem for lots of industrial companies is nobody realized the difficulties that we were all going to get hit with as we came out of COVID," Laderman added.

"Principally [it’s] the supply chain but also a lack of senior people and a lot of retirements: the knowledge base."

In an interview earlier this month with CNN, United CEO Scott Kirby said the airline would not be adding Boeing 737 MAX 10 jets—which been delayed  five years due to manufacturing issues—to its fleet.

As reported, the carrier grounded its 75 Boeing MAX 9 aircraft in the aftermath of a cable panel dislodging during an Alaska Airlines flight from Portland, Oregon on January 5.

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