Airlines call for accountability over Boeing’s quality problems

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US airline chief executives expressed frustration over Boeing’s quality issues on Tuesday, as they revealed the extent of the cost impact and delivery delays from the fuselage blowout on an Alaska Airlines flight earlier this month.

“We’re going to hold them accountable. Boeing needs to get their act together,” American chief executive Robert Isom told analysts on Thursday.

Boeing’s issues over the past number of years were “unacceptable”, he added. No matter who was leading the plane maker, he said, “all of Boeing needs to come together and to get back on the right track”.

His comments follow strong words from bosses at rivals United Airlines and Alaska Airlines.

“We’re going to hold Boeing’s feet to the fire to make sure that we get good aeroplanes out of that factory,” Alaska CEO Ben Minicucci told analysts on Thursday.

Alaska executives were having “tough, candid conversations” with Boeing’s leadership, he added, saying that what happened on the Max 9 “should never have happened at all” and was “not acceptable”.

Shares in Boeing were down almost 6 per cent in midday trading on Thursday after the Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday barred it from expanding output of its Max series, citing quality-control concerns. Its market value has fallen by about a fifth since the start of the year.

Alaska on Thursday said it expected to take a $150mn hit to profits this year from the grounding of its Boeing 737 Max 9 fleet after the mid-air loss of a door plug on one of its flight from Oregon to California on January 5.

Together with potential future delivery delays, the Seattle-based airline said its previous flying capacity growth forecast of between 3 per cent and 5 per cent might not be met.

Rivals Southwest and American, meanwhile, expect fewer Boeing aircraft to be delivered than planned this year as a result of the…