By Dan Catchpole
-Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said on Tuesday he is “not too worried” about the Trump administration’s threats to impose tariffs on trade partners, including countries that are important parts of Boeing’s far-flung supply chain.
“This administration’s very focused on jobs, on U.S. jobs, and, as you know, Boeing production is all U.S.-based., and we export these aircraft throughout the world,” he said in an interview.
Boeing is working with the administration to speed up delivery of two replacement presidential aircraft, better known as Air Force One, Ortberg said.
The U.S. planemaker has already lost more than $2 billion on the fixed-price program and the planes are not expected to be delivered until later this decade, several years behind schedule.
“Clearly, the president would like the airplane earlier, and so we’re working to see what could be done to accomplish that,” Ortberg told Reuters.
Ortberg said he is focused on stabilizing the company around its strengths. He said he is looking at non-core segments to sell, likely from Boeing’s defense, space and services divisions. Boeing’s commercial airplanes business is already streamlined, he said.
For now, that business is focused on stabilizing and ramping up production of its existing airplanes. He told CNBC on Tuesday that he expects Boeing to reach a production rate of 38 airplanes a month on the 737 MAX program, and by the second half of the year, get approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to increase production above that rate.
After that, he said, Boeing will increase 737 production by five aircraft every six months.
Ortberg also said he expects to raise 787 production from five per month now to seven a month in the first quarter of 2025.
(Additional reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Rod Nickel)
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