CGTN Europe interviewed Anita Mendiratta, Special Advisor to the Secretary-General of UN Tourism, aviation advisor, and author of The Call to Leadership.
00:00Let's go back now to those results from Boeing, the second quarter results showing a loss, but better than expected.
00:07And we can talk to Anita Menderato, who's an independent aviation analyst.
00:11Good to see you, Anita. Welcome to the program.
00:12So we are talking about a loss for Boeing, aren't we?
00:15But a smaller one than previously.
00:18So does it look like things have now finally turned around for the company?
00:22It's an interesting question you ask, Robin, because it's a small gain in terms of how they've proceeded with the results.
00:27But it's only a start. And this is an important one.
00:30The new CEO coming in, as you just mentioned, is just on the eve of his first anniversary.
00:35And he's demonstrated remarkable financial discipline when he looks at actually managing the business and interrogating it from every angle.
00:43So the gains that we're seeing in the results being listed today are very important, but they're only a first sign.
00:49And that's why even when the CEO was speaking today, the tonality was one of very much confidence, but cautiousness and recognizing there's still a lot of delivery that needs to be demonstrated, not only in the aircraft to the customers, but also internally in terms of the unity of the staff,
01:06confidence from the regulators and very much investor and customer confidence again to make sure the orders continue to come through and the rate of production remains strong.
01:16And one of the things that the CEO talked about was stability.
01:20And it has, of course, been a tumultuous few years for Boeing, hasn't it?
01:23How important is steadying the ship after this difficult period for them?
01:28It's such an important aspect of the recovery of Boeing.
01:31Because if we rewind a year from now, just before Kelly Orkberg took off as a CEO, this is when Dave Calhoun was going out.
01:37And the first quarter of this year was very much focused on Senate hearings, challenges from regulators and the bubbling of the strike that was just about to take place from September onward with 30,000 staff basically tools down on the main production lines of the 737 MAX.
01:54So the new CEO came in and really what he needed to do was exactly, as you say, establish stability and stability in this case is all about credibility, credibility internally as the leader who's listening to the staff and listening to what their concerns are as very proud, very loyal members of the Boeing community, but very much fed up.
02:15And then externally from the point of view of customers, regulators, investors and the flying public who are being disappointed by Boeing over and over, particularly when it came to quality and safety, which, as you said earlier in this report, was also linked to fatalities.
02:32So it was a very difficult year, but Kelly embraced it.
02:35And this is where the CEO needs to be credited for being very bold, very courageous, but very transparent, honest in recognizing there's work that needs to be done, but he cannot do it alone.
02:46This is a Boeing solution that needs to come from inside with the support of the outside.
02:52So you touched there on some of the production problems that Boeing suffered, and they have now cautiously increased production, haven't they?
02:59But still some supply chain issues on the horizon, tariffs, of course.
03:03How much of a problem could both of those be?
03:06The tariff issue is a significant one because over 70 percent of an aircraft's parts come from outside.
03:12So there will be tariff impact, which is going to have an impact on supply chains and on cost.
03:18This can't be avoided.
03:19So it needs to be, again, very carefully managed.
03:21And it's very much, again, making sure that as much as production is increasing, that the regulators, the FAA, is still very happy that the quality is being put back into the DNA of anything that has the Boeing name on it.
03:36Anita, great to talk to you.
03:37Thank you so much for coming on the program.
03:38That's Anita Menderato, the Independent Aviation Analyst.
