Boeing Has Started Working on a 737 MAX Replacement
By Benjamin Katz and Drew FitzGerald
While CEO Kelly Ortberg has focused on addressing quality issues and financial concerns, a new narrow-body plane is in development
Boeing is planning a new single-aisle airplane that would succeed the 737 MAX, according to people familiar with the matter, a long-term bid to recover business lost to rival Airbus during its series of safety and quality problems.
Earlier this year, Chief Executive Kelly Ortberg met with officials from Rolls-Royce Holdings RR 0.09%increase; green up pointing triangle in the U.K., two of the people said, where they discussed a new engine for the aircraft. Ortberg appointed a new senior product chief in Boeing’s commercial plane business, whose prior role was developing a new type of aircraft.
Boeing has also been designing the flight deck of a new narrow-body aircraft, according to a person familiar with the plans.
This new aircraft is in early-stage development and plans are still taking shape, some of the people said.
Boeing’s plans represent a shift for the company, which had put some new aircraft development work on the back burner while it navigated multiple challenges. They are also a sign that the company is betting that a cutting-edge plane design could power its business for the next few decades.
Ortberg hasn’t publicly detailed any plans for a 737 successor. He has consistently said that fixing Boeing’s long-running quality and manufacturing problems, and shoring up its balance sheet, are his priorities.
At a recent investor conference, Ortberg said the company is looking to finish up various projects, which “will also free up a lot of capital for us to focus on what’s next.”
Boeing said in a statement that it remains focused on its recovery plan, including delivering on a backlog of roughly 6,000 commercial airplanes and certifying already-announced aircraft models.
“Our team evaluates the market, advances key technologies, and improves our financial performance, so that we will be ready when the time is right to move forward with a new product,” the company added.
Boeing’s aircraft-development programs have struggled in recent years. The 737 MAX entered commercial service in May 2017. Two deadly crashes involving the jets resulted in a global grounding of the fleet in 2019 and delayed two new variants. The company later dropped plans to build a new midsize aircraft that it had been trumpeting. It is years behind on a new upgrade for its 777.
The crashes and other safety problems dented customers’ confidence, spurred turnover in Boeing’s senior management and prompted regulatory crackdowns.
As Boeing struggled, rival Airbus didn’t sit still. The European aircraft manufacturer has grown to be the world’s biggest plane maker by total deliveries and order backlog.
Despite starting production roughly 20 years after its rival, Airbus deliveries of A320 narrow-body jets have caught up to Boeing’s deliveries of its 737s.
Airbus’s gains are bringing it billions of dollars to invest in its own next-generation narrow-body, an aircraft that it wants to deliver to customers in the late 2030s.
Boeing’s previous chief, Dave Calhoun, considered reviving the effort for a midsize aircraft to gradually replace the 737 family and discussed the idea with customers. Those grand plans took a back seat to more-pressing problems following a midair door-plug blowout that exposed persistent manufacturing problems and led to Calhoun’s departure in 2024.
Boeing has historically signaled development plans years in advance to entice airline customers, lock in commitments from suppliers and drum up interest from investors.
Ortberg, who has led Boeing for just over a year, has had an eye on Boeing’s next big play.
Building an all-new aircraft, known as a clean-sheet design, can take over a decade and cost tens of billions of dollars. Manufacturers typically look for at least a 15% jump in fuel efficiency when deciding whether to embark on a major plane program. That could come from new engine architecture, lighter materials or radical changes to the airframe.
In February, Ortberg traveled to Rolls-Royce’s factory in Derby, England, a roughly three-hour drive from London, where he met with the company’s CEO, Tufan Erginbilgic. The Boeing chief heard the company’s pitch to supply an engine for a new narrow-body aircraft.
“We actually hosted Boeing leadership in Derby to talk about narrow-body this year,” Erginbilgic said, according to a transcript of a September investor event viewed by The Wall Street Journal. “That should give you a sense where the conversations are.”
Rolls-Royce, which began testing a prototype of its newest engine in 2023, doesn’t yet have a customer for the technology. The new engine could offer a 10% jump in fuel efficiency compared with engines on Airbus’s A320neo and up to 20% when combined with other upgrades to a new airframe, the Rolls-Royce CEO said at the investor presentation.
In a separate media event, Erginbilgic said the company would need a partner to help manufacture the engines and could begin deliveries as soon as 2035, a faster timeline than what Airbus is planning for its next narrow-body plane.
Any deal with Rolls-Royce would mark a major change for Boeing, which for about 40 years has used engines from CFM International—a joint venture between GE Aerospace and Safran—to power its 737 narrow-body planes. The first 737 aircraft made its debut in the 1960s.
In April, Boeing shifted the focus of a project with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration aimed at developing a radical new and greener aircraft, known as X-66. Instead, the company has retooled that effort to design a lighter and more aerodynamic wing for a new aircraft.
The next month, Ortberg promoted Brian Yutko, boss of its flying-taxi subsidiary Wisk Aero, to a role leading product development within the company’s commercial division. The role would include overseeing any successor to the 737 family of planes.
Boeing executives have said that Wisk technologies would be essential to designing future cockpit avionics, including Boeing’s next airplane.
Ortberg has worked to convince customers and the public that Boeing can overcome its challenges. That has been reflected in comments from airlines, including the discount carrier Ryanair, one of Boeing’s biggest customers and at times, a staunch critic.
Boeing is “doing a really good job at the moment, the aircraft are coming early, quality is excellent,” Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary said at a press conference in August. He said Ryanair had started recalling engineers it had based at Boeing’s factories to oversee the plane maker’s work.
The Federal Aviation Administration, which will have to approve Boeing’s new plane, is loosening its grip over the company’s aircraft deliveries and production. Regulators expressed tentative satisfaction with the plane maker’s efforts to improve its manufacturing quality.
The company still has major near-term hurdles to clear. Two new 737 MAX models have yet to be certified. Boeing is roughly six years behind schedule in bringing an upgraded 777X, a long-distance aircraft, to market.
aviationweek.com
