Is the Air India crash one too many for Boeing's reputation?
Before the 787-8 Dreamliner departing Ahmedabad, India, plunged to the ground after take-off on Thursday, Boeing was already tiptoeing away from a financial and reputational cliff.
While the investigation is only beginning, the Air India Dreamliner crash will almost inevitably push people to ask if this is one air disaster too many for the century-old plane-maker Boeing.
Crashes of Boeings have happened at an alarming cadence in recent years.
An Indonesian Lion Air Boeing 737 Max crashed in 2018, followed by an Ethiopian Airlines of the same model in 2019. An issue was traced to a flawed flight control system. The incidents sparked a global grounding of the fleet. Then a door fell off an Alaska Airlines 737 in midair in 2024.
By the next month, an outside panel of experts had concluded Boeing faced persistent shortcomings in its safety culture. Regulators moved in. The share price slid. Costs mounted. And a new CEO was found. 'If it's Boeing, I'm not going' became a catchphrase.
So began the company's meticulous re-evaluation of its production process, which has slowed the assembly line down, even as demand for new planes has soared after the COVID-19 lockdowns.
Only 1266 aircraft were delivered globally by Boeing and Airbus together in 2024, an 8.1 per cent drop from 2023, the International Air Transport Association reported.
Building modern jetliners is no small feat. The cost of developing a blockbuster model is enormous, in part because a new model must be 20 per cent to 30 per cent more efficient than the planes they replace. (The Dreamliner's lighter structure cuts fuel use by up to 25 per cent.)
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