Street Calls of the Week
Investing.com-- Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) is developing plans for a new single-aisle aircraft to succeed its troubled 737 MAX, as it seeks to regain ground lost to rival Airbus (EPA:AIR), the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Chief Executive Kelly Ortberg met earlier this year with Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC (LON:RR) in the U.K. to discuss a potential new engine, the report said.
Boeing has also begun designing a flight deck for the next-generation narrow-body jet and appointed a senior product chief with experience in aircraft development, according to the Journal.
The project remains in its early stages, and Ortberg has not publicly disclosed details. He has repeatedly stressed that Boeing’s immediate priorities are fixing quality problems, clearing its roughly 6,000-plane backlog, and strengthening its balance sheet.
Any new “clean-sheet” aircraft would take more than a decade to develop and require tens of billions of dollars in investment. Rolls-Royce has pitched an engine that could boost fuel efficiency by up to 20%, the WSJ reported.
Boeing has faced setbacks in recent years, with two fatal 737 MAX crashes in 2019 grounding the fleet and delaying variants. It scrapped a planned midsize jet and remains years behind on its 777 upgrade.