A major decision that Boeing made almost a decade ago has resulted in the greatest threat to the aerospace giant’s reputation and the bottom line at the company after two major plane crashes in just under six months.
Back in 2011, American Airlines, who was an exclusive Boeing customer for more than 10 years, was getting ready to defect from the company in favor of purchasing hundreds of new jets from Airbus, according to The New York Times. Airbus had been stealing market share from Boeing for several years, and losing American Airlines would have been a crushing blow, costing billions of dollars in lost sales and thousands of jobs.
So when the CEO of American Airlines called Boeing to let them know a deal with Airbus was close, Boeing scrapped its plans of developing a new passenger plane and decided to instead hastily update its workhorse 737, promising the plane would be done in six years.
The 737 Max was born roughly three months later.
Continue reading ““It Was Go, Go, Go”: Boeing Rushed 737 MAX Design In Race With Airbus”
