Emiratesairline boss sees positive progress at troubled Boeing

The head of the world’s largest international airline, Dubai’s Emirates, said on Sunday there were positive signs of progress at Boeing, having previously voiced frustration over delays in delivery of new jetliners from the planemaker.Emirates President Tim Clark said he was seeing a greater degree of determination from Boeing to resolve its many issues under a recently appointed CEO, and management had indicated cautious optimism over its recovery in discussion with Emirates.Boeing is trying to stabilize and ramp up production after a quality crisis and then labor strike shuttered production of most of its aircraft last year.Boeing is also awaiting certification from the US Federal Aviation Administration for its 777X wide-body plane, of which Emirates has 205 on order.Deliveries of the 777X are set to start in 2026, six years behind schedule.Emirates has been told it could receive its first 777X any time between the second half of 2026 and the first quarter of 2027, Clark said, adding that he was sensing a more positive tone from Boeing on the plane’s progress.Boeing and European planemaker Airbus are months and years behind on new plane deliveries, frustrating airlines that want to upgrade to more fuel-efficient aircraft and launch new services.Speaking at a news briefing on the sidelines of an International Air Transport Association summit, Clark said the industry was still facing chronic aerospace supply problems and challenged planemakers to take responsibility.“I am pretty tired of seeing the hand-wringing about the supply chain: you (manufacturers) are the supply chain,” Clark said.Last week, sources told Reuters that Airbus has been warning airlines it faces another three years of delivery delays in working through a backlog of supply-chain problems.Clark said the pandemic was no longer an acceptable excuse.“It’s a highly consolidated industry…I don’t think they’ve managed to strip out the inefficiencies of the smaller units ...