Boeing Co has reassigned the head of its next airplane project to run the troubled 737 program, according to a memo seen by Reuters on Thursday, as the grounding of its 737 MAX in the wake of two accidents commands the US planemaker’s full attention.
Kevin McAllister, chief executive of Boeing’s commercial airplanes division, stressed in the memo that the so-called new mid-market airplane (NMA) project would remain as a program. But the management shake-up marks a shift in the US planemaker’s immediate focus toward getting its best-selling 737 MAX, the jet that was grounded after two crashes killed nearly 350 people in the span of five months, back in the air and generating cash.
