Boeing boss Dave Calhoun announces resignation amid safety crisis

Boeing's boss Dave Calhoun has announced his resignation amid a safety crisis at the aeroplane maker.

Mr Calhoun said he will step down as chief executive at the end of the year. As part of the management overhaul Stan Deal, who was in charge of Boeing's airplane-making division, is also leaving. Stephanie Pope, who was previously the division's CEO, is taking over.

Larry Kellner, who chairs Boeing’s board of directors, will also leave his role. Boeing came under heavy scrutiny after one of its 737 Max 9 planes had a mid-air blowout on January 5.

This raised concerns about quality control at the company and led to the Federal Aviation Administration limiting the production of the 737 Max 9 planes. Announcing his departure, Mr Calhoun wrote a note to staff, saying: "It has been the greatest privilege of my life to serve Boeing. The eyes of the world are on us, and I know that we will come through this moment a better company."

He added: "We will remain squarely focused on completing the work we have done together to return our company to stability after the extraordinary challenges of the past five years, with safety and quality at the forefront of everything that we do."

Michael O'Leary, chief executive of Ryanair, said: "We welcome these much-needed management changes in Seattle. We look forward to working with Stephanie Pope to accelerate B737 aircraft deliveries to customers, including Ryanair in Europe, for summer and autumn 2024."

"We also look forward to continuing to work with Boeing chief executive Dave Calhoun and chief financial officer Brian West, and to helping Boeing recover its aircraft deliveries so that Ryanair can continue to grow strongly as Boeing's number one customer here in Europe."

Ryanair has had to cancel some flights they planned for this summer because the new Boeing 737 MAX 8200 planes they ordered are late. Mr O'Leary said in February that because they won't have as many seats to sell, tickets for Ryanair flights this summer will cost about 10% more than last year.

Mr Calhoun was on Boeing's board before he became the boss in January 2020. He took over from Dennis Muilenburg, who lost his job after two Boeing 737 Max planes crashed in 2018 and 2019 in Indonesia and Ethiopia, and 346 people died.