Airbus was confident it could capitalize this year on a postpandemic surge in demand, but the world's biggest jet maker has suffered a change in fortunes.

At the start of 2024, Airbus had just smashed its record for annual orders, airlines were clamoring for more jets and production was ramping up. The company’s only significant rival, Boeing, was in an escalating crisis after a panel blew off a 737 midflight.

Since then, Airbus has been dogged by delays, prompting the company to cut its annual delivery guidance and defer a long-heralded production target. The company’s stock is now down more than 20% since it hit a record high in March.

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World’s biggest jet maker has had a frustrating change in fortunes, having been confident it could capitalize this year on a postpandemic surge in demand Christian Scherer, head of Airbus’s commercial aircraft unit, has sought to ramp up production. ‘I thought we were going to be in a better place,’ he says. Christian Scherer, head of Airbus’s commercial aircraft unit, has sought to ramp up production. ‘I thought we were going to be in a better place,’ he says. 

When Christian Scherer took the job of running Airbus’s AIR -0.03%decrease; red down pointing triangle commercial aircraft division at the start of the year, the gig looked like a slam dunk.

The plane maker had just smashed its record for annual orders, airlines were still clamoring for more jets and production was ramping up. The company’s only significant rival, Boeing BA -0.15%decrease; red down pointing triangle, had been flung into a fresh and escalating crisis after a door-size panel blew off the side of a 737 midflight.

Since then, Airbus has been dogged by delays, prompting the company to cut its annual delivery guidance and defer a long-heralded production target. Orders during the first half of the year were less than a third of the intake in the same period of 2023, and the company’s stock is now down more than 20% since it hit a record high in March.

It is a frustrating change in fortunes for the world’s biggest jet manufacturer, which was confident it could capitalize this year on a postpandemic surge in demand. Instead, Airbus is mired in supply-chain issues.

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Boeing recorded a larger-than-expected loss in the second quarter. The leadership change at Boeing BA 2.82%increase; green up pointing triangle bodes well for the radical transformation that the plane maker requires. But outflying a troubled culture and growing debt pile will be tough.

On Wednesday, the Arlington, Va.-based manufacturer said Robert “Kelly” Ortberg will on Aug. 8 become its next chief executive and president, succeeding Dave Calhoun, who has served both roles since January 2020.

The stock rose in early trading as investors decided this news was enough to offset disappointing second-quarter results. A $1.4 billion net loss, compared with expectations of $913 million, was the result of Boeing’s building fewer commercial aircraft—quality issues slowed deliveries of the MAX, while supplier shortages affected the 787 Dreamliner—as well as losses in its defense programs.

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Kelly Ortberg inherits a troubled ‘go, go, go’ culture and a manufacturer burning through billions of dollars

Robert “Kelly” Ortberg was well known on Wall Street for striking big deals as the leader of Rockwell Collins. But back in Iowa, the aerospace executive was known for paying attention to issues that rarely made headlines, like the VIP spots in the company parking lot.

With little fanfare, Ortberg removed the assigned spaces for higher-ranking employees at the headquarters of Rockwell Collins. Brad Neilly, an employee, recalled how one Friday night he walked out of the building at the same time as Ortberg. The chief executive had parked even farther away from the building, “deep into the parking lot,” Neilly wrote on LinkedIn in 2021. “It was a little thing but had a big impact on me.”

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