Airbus exec: Need to correct ‘cultural belief’ that we are benefitting from Boeing 737 Max grounding

Grounding of Boeing 737 Max fleet “does not benefit anyone in this industry, the least of which would be Airbus,” Airbus Chief Commercial Officer Christian Scherer told CNBC during the Dubai Air Show on Sunday. Scherer said that he “really need to correct that cultural belief” that Airbus is benefitting from the grounding of around 400 737 Max aircraft of its rival company Boeing. The latter had to suspend the planes earlier this year after it saw two crashes of 737 Max aircraft in less than five months killing 346 people.

“It’s a tragedy, it is an issue for Boeing to resolve, but it is not good for competitors to see problems on any one particular airplane type,” Scherer told CNBC. Boeing had taken a $4.9 billion after-tax charge in the second quarter to compensate airlines however the exact amount is not known since regulators haven’t lifted the ban yet. While Airbus and Boeing each have almost half of the market share of large commercial airline industry but the orders for each of them are likely to be smaller this year because of the challenges being faced by the industry such as global economic slowdown, climate change and safety issues.