By Allison Lampert, Abhijith Ganapavaram and David Shepardson
(Reuters) – Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg on Thursday said Elon Musk, the head of its space business rival SpaceX, is “helping us a lot” in navigating through delays in delivering Boeing’s Air Force One presidential jet.
Ortberg also told an investor conference that he expects top U.S. aviation regulators to visit Seattle soon, where the planemaker’s strongest-selling 737 MAX jet is produced.
Ortberg, who took the helm of Boeing six months ago, is trying to grow production of the embattled planemaker’s MAX and 787 jets to at least 38 a month, while sorting contracts that hit its defense unit with pre-tax charges of $1.7 billion in the fourth quarter.
Ortberg told the Barclays Industrial Select Conference that Boeing is making progress with the help of Trump’s cost-cutting ally Musk in improving the delivery time, which will eliminate the risk of continued cost overruns.
“Elon Musk is actually helping us a lot in working through the requirements…so that we can move faster and get the president those airplanes delivered,” Ortberg said.
“And you know he’s a brilliant guy so he’s able to pretty quickly ascertain the difference between technical requirements and things that we can move out of the way and he’s helping us in a big way.”
Earlier this week, a senior administration official said the Air Force One program may be further delayed until 2029 or years later due partly to supply chain problems. Trump has said he is not happy with Boeing due to delays in delivering Air Force One planes, adding his administration might have to “do something else.”
Separately, Boeing said on Thursday it had named Jeff Shockey executive vice president of government operations. He will lead the planemaker’s global public policy efforts, including federal operations among other things.
Problems in the aerospace supply chain have hampered the recovery of the embattled planemaker which has lurched from crisis to crisis, and also weighed on production plans by European rival Airbus.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Federal Aviation Administration Acting Administrator Chris Rocheleau are expected to visit Seattle sometime in March, a source familiar with the matter said.
While Ortberg said the 737 supply chain was in good shape, he acknowledged the planemaker is assessing the impact of a fire this week at a Pennsylvania factory and key Boeing supplier that makes fasteners for aircraft. Boeing shares dipped 2% in late morning trade.
An industry source said the fire at SPS Technologies, part of Berkshire Hathaway-owned Precision Castparts, is significant for Boeing as it is an important producer of fasteners for the 787. Dreamliner production is set to grow from five a month to seven a month this year.
“We do have a lot of components that come out of that factory,” Ortberg said. “I just heard, for example, that a big shipment that they had to ship to us – the parts are done and they are okay and they are in their warehouse but we can’t get them out right now.”
(Reporting By Allison Lampert in Montreal and Abhijith Ganapavaram in Bengaluru. Additional reporting by David Shepardson and Utkarsh Shetti; Editing by David Gregorio)
