The 737 Max pilot who came to rescue Boeing business

Bloomberg

When Ray Conner retired as head of Boeing Co’s commercial aircraft business in 2017, the company threw a farewell party for its lifelong employee. Among the speakers: Willie Walsh, who runs the IAG SA airline group and had built a close rapport over the years both with Conner and Boeing, having spent almost two decades piloting 737 planes himself.
Walsh’s message: relationships matter, both between individuals and companies. Now, with Boeing in crisis after its all-important 737 Max model was grounded in the wake of two deadly crashes, the company was able to call on the robustness of that partnership. In a stunning move at the Paris Air Show, Walsh ordered 200 of the Max, a huge commercial bet on a plane whose return to service remains undecided, and a resounding endorsement at a time when Boeing needs all the support it can get.
While Walsh no doubt secured a healthy discount on the $24 billion list price, it wasn’t commercial opportunism alone that drove the executive. Walsh had long lamented that the airline group he oversees — including flag carrier British Airways, Iberia and Vueling from Spain, as well as Ireland’s Aer Lingus — risked becoming too dependent on Airbus SE, whose A320 model almost entirely makes up its short-haul fleet. As Walsh looked to refresh the Vueling and Level discount units as well as BA, the Max became an attractive option.
Just days before the announcement, Walsh gave a thinly veiled hint that he was interested in diversifying. In an interview in trade publication Aero Telegraph, the CEO said that “given the scale of our operations, I see no reason why we should confine ourselves to Airbus. That is not healthy. There has to be competition between aircraft manufacturers.”
Boeing confirmed that it had been in talks with IAG for some time. But any commercial aspirations were thrown into disarray after the chaotic global grounding of the aircraft following two deadly crashes, the last in Ethiopia on March 10, killing everyone on board.
Heading into the Paris Air Show, Boeing said it was attending the event with a tone of humility rather than usual animal spirit on display to fight for orders. Indeed, on the first day, the Chicago-based company drew a blank, watching Airbus rake in massive sales.
But even with the plane grounded, Walsh hadn’t aborted his pursuit of a deal. The Irishman has shown before that he’s willing to stand by Boeing in a time of crisis. In 2013, with Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner grounded because of problems with lithium batteries, Walsh doubled down and ordered 18 additional jets, topping up an earlier purchase of the model in 2007.
This time with the Max, Walsh personally got involved in the aircraft review, testing the proposed upgrades in a flight simulator near London’s Gatwick airport about four weeks ago and approving of the changes he experienced first hand.