Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury is calling out his company’s only competitor, Boeing, for its recent string of safety and quality control issues.
At the Europe 2024 Conference in Berlin, Faury reportedly said that he is “not happy” with the headwinds Boeing is facing regarding its plane production process, according to a recent report from Reuters.
"I am not happy with the problems of my competitor,” said Faury at the conference. “They are not good for the industry (as) a whole."
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He also added that “quality and safety is top priority” in the aviation industry.
Boeing has been under the microscope of the Federal Aviation Administration ever since an Alaska Airlines flight on Jan. 5 had to make an emergency landing after a door plug blew off the Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft mid-flight. This resulting in Boeing later being hit with a billion-dollar class-action lawsuit from the passengers on the flight who were traumatized by the incident.
In the FAA’s investigation into Boeing’s safety and quality control practices, it found “non-compliance issues” in the company’s “manufacturing process control, parts handling and storage, and product control.”
According to a recent report from the New York Times, the FAA found during a series of audits that mechanics from Spirit AeroSystems, a company that helps Boeing produce the 737 Max, allegedly used a hotel key card to “check a door seal” on a 737 Max plane and used liquid Dawn dish soap as lubricant for a door seal.
Out of the FAA’s 89 product audits, which examined Boeing’s production process, Boeing allegedly only passed 56 and failed 33 of them, according to the Times.
Consumer trust in Boeing airplanes has taken a tumble during the past few months following the aircraft manufacturer's Alaska Airlines incident in January, and a plethora of other safety incidents that followed. According to a recent survey from Morning Consultant, U.S. adults’ net trust in Boeing was only 9 percentage points in February, which is down 16 points since December.
The survey also found that business and first-class flyers gave Boeing a 16-point net trust rating, which is a 26 point decline from the fourth-quarter of 2023.
