By Allison Lampert and David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Boeing’s new CEO Kelly Ortberg said on Thursday he would be based in the planemaker’s birthplace Seattle, moving closer to the factory floor to rein in a safety crisis.
Ortberg's confirmation of earlier reports that he would move to Puget Sound, Washington, rather than Boeing (NYSE:BA)'s corporate headquarters in Washington D.C., follows months of pressure on the company to reconnect with its industrial roots after missing bolts led to a door plug falling off a 737 MAX jet in mid-air in January.
Ortberg, 64, will spend part of Thursday, his first day on the job, meeting workers who produce the company's strong-selling 737 MAX jet at a factory in the Seattle suburb Renton, as he faces the steep task of "restoring trust," according to a message to employees.
"Because what we do is complex, I firmly believe that we need to get closer to the production lines and development programs across the company," he wrote in the letter.
The former boss of aerospace company Rockwell Collins (NYSE:COL), now part of RTX, will also talk to suppliers, government officials and regulators. The planemaker is bleeding cash and beset by problems expected to take years to fix.
MAX production and deliveries have slowed following the Jan. 5 mid-air panel blowout on a near-new model, while output of the 787 Dreamliner is now less than five per month due to supply-chain problems.
Ortberg's to-do list includes boosting output of MAX jets from about 25 to 38 planes a month by year-end and securing a labor deal to avoid a possible strike this year.
Airline industry executives, while optimistic about Ortberg, are urging him to prioritize plane deliveries, after delays undermined carriers' planning.
“When I meet him and I ask him one thing, it's going to be: 'please deliver my planes on time',” Etihad Airways CEO Antonoaldo Neves told The National.
On Wednesday, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board said the 737 MAX 9 emergency was entirely avoidable because Boeing had been repeatedly warned about the problem of unauthorized production.
Boeing has said documentation, a critical part of aerospace manufacturing, is missing for an earlier removal of the panel that fell off the plane, which lacked four bolts.
NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said the independent safety agency would like to complete a probe into the flight by early next year.
Ortberg also plans to visit employees at Boeing's key supplier Spirit AeroSystems (NYSE:SPR) in Wichita, Kansas, next week, according to officials from both companies. Boeing has agreed to buy back cash-strapped Spirit, whose core plants it spun off in 2005, for $4.7 billion in stock.
U.S. Senator Jerry Moran will join Ortberg and Boeing chairman Steve Mollenkopf at Spirit, a spokesperson for the Kansas Republican said.
Spirit Aero spokesperson Joe Buccino said the high-profile visit would showcase the company's commercial and defense operations.
In the message to employees, Ortberg reminded workers that "people’s lives depend on what we do every day."
On Wednesday, NASA said Boeing's Starliner astronauts, delivered in June to the International Space Station, could return on a SpaceX capsule in February 2025 if Starliner is still deemed unsafe to return to Earth.
The astronauts' test mission, initially expected to last about eight days on the station, has been drawn out by issues on Starliner's propulsion system that have called into question the spacecraft's ability to safely return them to Earth as planned.
"Restoring trust starts with meeting our commitments - whether that’s building high-quality, safe commercial aircraft, (or) delivering on defense and space products that allow our customers to meet their mission," Ortberg said.