Our program Thursday morning, May 28, 2020, was presented by Susan Champlain, Director of Government Operations, Boeing Company.
“Strange times.” Susan Champlain began her presentation to the Club with great understatement, particularly for the Boeing Company. The company, still our state’s largest employer, has faced enormous challenges in the last year and continues to work through them.
Today, Boeing employs 71,000 people in Washington. The Boeing Commercial Airplanes and Boeing Capital Corporation divisions of the company are headquartered here. The 777, 767 Dreamliner, 787, 777XS, 737 Max, and 747-8 are all built here. Approximately half Boeing’s employees are located in Washington and the average salary is $124,500.
Susan addressed the two “horrible” 737 MAX accidents that were “devastating” to the employees of the company. The plane has been grounded now for over a year. The company is hopeful that the certification process will be completed in the third quarter of this year. Production of the aircraft halted in January of 2020; but new production will begin again shortly. But there are 400 737 MAX aircraft currently parked awaiting delivery to customers.
There were “serious mistakes” that lead to this situation, she said. The company erred in understanding how pilots would react in a very stressful situation. She believes that, once certified, the revised 737 MAX will be one of the safest planes in the air.
Equally concerning to the company is the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. US airline traffic is down more than 90 percent from last year and “airlines are suffering mightily.” While Chinese air travel has begun to recover, it is not expected that recovery will become complete for three years. There are currently 16,000 jets parked and out of service.
Boeing has reacted to these challenges through two large layoffs. Four thousand employees left the company voluntarily, but the company recently announced an additional 6,000 involuntary layoffs. There may additional layoffs.
The light at the end of the tunnel is that aviation, historically, has been incredibly resilient: It always come back.
To aid in the comeback, a consortium of manufacturers, airlines, regulators, and academics have begun working on significantly enhancing the safety of flying. People need to feel safe when they are flying and the consortium is working on innovations like UV lighting and antimicrobial surfaces on planes.
Susan took questions from the membership, but did not comment on Hal Beal’s announcement that he had recently purchased Boeing stock. Several members were quite knowledgeable about the great variation in the stock price, which, some said, might be a buying opportunity.
Susan expressed optimism about the future of the company, but, clearly, there will be a long road to recovery.