Boeing 737 Max has airline CEOs seeking meetings with board

Airline CEOs are tired of waiting on their Boeing planes. The company had already been running behind on delivering its next-generation 737 Max jets to customers — and then a door plug blowout on an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 flight made those delays even worse. Passenger are suing. The U.S. government is investigating. And now The Wall Street Journal reports that a group of Boeing customers are seeking meetings with the plane maker’s board of directors to get some answers about what exactly is going on.

The meetings, which would reportedly exclude Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun, come at a tricky time for the company. Boeing can’t speed things up because U.S. regulators want it to slow things down and focus on fixing its safety culture. Still, airline executives have become increasingly antsy about delays in their plane deliveries, publicly discussing their various difficulties and openly planning for alternatives. Boeing declined to comment on The Journal report.

Ryanair has had to cut capacity on its busy summer flight schedule. Southwest Airlines has given up on the idea that it will get any of the 737 Max 10 planes it had been expecting this year. United Airlines is possibly going to lease planes from Boeing competitor Airbus, rather than continue waiting on the 737 Max planes it ordered way back in 2017. Fitch Ratings said last week that the plane problems have edged Boeing’s default risk closer to junk-bond territory — though its bonds due in 2026 are still trading near full value. On the other hand, CFO Brian West recently said a lot of cash will be going out the door by the time this is all over.