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Boeing’s new CEO made $18.4 million in compensation last year after taking over the beleaguered jetmaker in August.
CEO Kelly Ortberg’s pay for the five months on the job included $16 million in stock and options, a salary of $525,000 and a $1.25 million signing bonus, Boeing said Friday in a regulatory filing.
Ousted CEO David Calhoun received $15 million, including $1.3 million in salary and equity awards valued at $13.2 million. That’s less than half of the $33 million Calhoun received, mostly stock compensation, in 2023.
Calhoun received no buyout and neither leader received performance bonuses for a year that started with a near-catastrophic fuselage-panel blowout on an Alaska Airlines flight and culminated in a strike by the company’s largest union.
Most of the company's top executives received lower overall pay last year compared to 2023.
Boeing is burning through billions of dollars and, in addition to the quality crisis in its commercial airline manufacturing operations, it is struggling with a money-losing defense business and troubled space program.
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Loss of factory that made fasteners for jets threatens Boeing’s plan to get production back on track; ‘We’ll get through it,’ CEO says
The fire at SPS Technologies, in Abington Township, Pa., broke out Feb. 17 and took several days to extinguish.
A fire tore through an airplane-parts factory last month in suburban Philadelphia, decimating the century-old plant. Boeing BA -0.17%decrease; red down pointing triangle has been racing ever since to size up whether it will delay the jet maker’s turnaround plans.
Equal in size to about 10 football fields, the factory, operated by a Berkshire Hathaway BRK.B 0.02%increase; green up pointing triangle company, was the sole supplier of some critical fasteners used in Boeing planes. Fallout from the blaze now threatens the aerospace company’s effort to get its manufacturing operations back on track.
Boeing is searching to find alternative suppliers, but replacing the parts isn’t an easy task. Many might look like typical bolts, but the fasteners must be manufactured to hold up to the demands of air travel, and some of the designs are complex. They are used in jet engines, landing gear and other parts of the plane.
The plant’s loss won’t have an immediate effect on production, the company said, but suppliers and analysts expect fallout as Boeing works through its parts supply.
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European plane maker posts higher revenue and profit for the first quarter
Airbus posted higher revenue and profit for the first quarter, backed its goal to deliver more planes this year than in 2023 and decided to increase production of its A350 wide-body jets, extending its lead over beleaguered rival Boeing.
The European plane maker confirmed its target to deliver about 800 commercial aircraft to customers this year, more than the 735 planes it dispatched in 2023.
Airbus’s optimism that deliveries will keep growing comes as Boeing grapples with the fallout from an Alaska Airlines emergency landing in January after a door plug ripped away in midair, prompting a temporary grounding and immediate inspections of Boeing 737 MAX jets.
Airbus handed 142 planes to customers in the first quarter, up nearly 12% versus a year ago. Boeing, on the other hand, delivered just 83, a 36% drop from a year ago.
The U.S. company, under pressure from airlines and regulators to ensure safety and quality in its production processes, reported a net loss and declining revenue in the first quarter, showing diverging fortunes with Airbus.
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The European plane maker said that it will book charges of about €900 million in the first half of 2024
Airbus said it won’t be meeting its annual targets for the year, including the number of commercial aircraft it planned to deliver, after its space-systems management team identified further commercial and technical challenges.
The European plane maker on Monday said that it will also book charges of about €900 million ($962.5 million) in the first half of 2024 following an extensive review of its space-systems programs.
Airbus expects to end the year delivering 770 commercial aircraft, down from a prior outlook of 800 commercial aircraft deliveries a couple of months ago.
The company said its A320 ramp-up trajectory has been adjusted to reflect specific supply-chain challenges in a degraded operating environment, and that its target production rate of 75 A320 Family aircraft a month is now set to be reached a year later, in 2027.
Airbus also forecasts adjusted earnings before interest and taxes of about €5.5 billion, below the €6.5 billion to €7 billion expected previously.
Airbus’s free cash flow before customer financing expectations have also been lowered to €3.5 billion from €4 billion, the company said.
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