(Bloomberg) -- American Airlines Group Inc.’s CEO said he looks forward to the day when Boeing Co. is “not just a distraction,” highlighting the growing frustration among the planemaker’s biggest customers.
“We’ve been struggling with them over the last five years,” Robert Isom told CNBC Thursday, noting that American can deliver the capacity it has planned for the remainder of this year but that he worries about promised Boeing plane deliveries in the future.
American lifted its full-year profit outlook in a sign its efforts to win back corporate customers are starting to work. Still, Boeing remains top of mind for airline CEOs as they seek to keep up with an increasing need for new planes.
“We need them to deliver quality aircraft on time,” he said. “I look forward to the phone call when Boeing says we’re able to do so.”
Boeing factory workers on Wednesday rejected a new labor contract that would have increased their wages by 35% over four years, exacerbating the aircraft manufacturer’s crisis as it struggles to overcome a crippling work stoppage and get its business back on track.
The planemaker has been forced to suspend work on its 737 and larger 767 and 777 airliner models at its Seattle-area manufacturing hub for more than a month, weighing on its finances and putting credit-rating companies on alert for a possible downgrade to junk status.
The labor strife is costing the company about $100 million a day in lost revenue by some estimates, and the stoppage has shut down Boeing plants in Washington, Oregon and California.
Some airlines, meanwhile, have had to revise their growth targets because they’re not likely to get the aircraft they had planned for next year. Boeing had previously sought to return its 737 Max model to a production rate of 38 a month by year-end, with analysts now saying that it’s unlikely to reach that target until well into 2025.
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