01/06/2024 – 12:00
Safety and quality problems exposed at Boeing after one of its planes lost a piece of its fuselage during a flight earlier this year risk shaking travelers’ confidence in flying, an executive at rival Airbus said.
Christian Scherer, CEO of Airbus’ commercial aircraft division, told German weekly magazine WirtschaftsWoche that the issues were “a burden on the entire industry.” “Boeing’s problems could make more people question how safe it really is to fly,” Scherer said.
+ Boeing has the first drop in revenue in almost 2 years amid the crisis and reduced deliveries
Boeing has been under increasing pressure over factory controls since January 5, when a jet from its 737 MAX series lost a piece of its fuselage mid-flight in an incident blamed on missing screws.
Scherer rejected claims that Airbus could raise prices for its own jets as a result of Boeing’s problems. He added that prices were driven purely by demand outstripping supply and that it was difficult to predict how things would play out in the future.
“I dare say that a struggling competitor can behave relatively unpredictably. If a company has dozens of planes in inventory unintentionally, that could trigger a big sell-off.”
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