Boeing's chief executive David Calhoun seeks to co-ordinate with the airframer's supply chain to avoid overestimating how quickly it will produce new jets while helping its suppliers plan ahead for a recovery in travel demand amid increased vaccination against Covid-19. "I am going to steer clear of blanket rate announcements that go out too far," Calhoun said on 3 June during Bernstein's virtual Strategic Decisions Conference. "If we get it wrong, we pay a price for it. We are trying to manage that process." Suppliers that overcommit to an aircraft production schedule can be forced to lay off extra staff or face unnecessary expenses, Calhoun says, adding Boeing will minimise how often it will announce rates. He aims to keep suppliers informed to "allow them to weigh in on that judgement with me" to plan for supply and production. Boeing and Airbus both aim to increase production and deliveries of their commercial jets to help airline customers prepare for the easing and eventual lifting of Covid-19 travel restrictions. Production rates from Boeing should be for the benefit of suppliers and not signal aircraft market share between itself and Airbus, Calhoun says. Boeing, however, does not have an aircraft to directly compete against the fuel-efficient and long-range Airbus A321XLR aircraft. Airbus has generated around 2,950 firm orders worldwide for its single-aisle A321neo family aircraft, which includes the new XLR series scheduled for its first delivery in 2023, data shows. While the A321XLR series "definitely fills a select part of the market" where it enjoys a performance advantage, Calhoun says "I don’t see that as a market mover" that would significantly impact its competition with Airbus. Moving too quickly producing an aircraft and designing it mainly to counter the A321XLR could be a costly mistake, Calhoun says, while adding "it won't be long" before Boeing announces a new aircraft type. Fuel efficiency and long range are part of the appeal for XLRs but Calhoun says a new Boeing aircraft is "going to tackle more than that". "We are not going to rush; we are going to do it the right way," Calhoun says. New aircraft like 737 Max jets offer more efficient propulsion than previous generations of aircraft but Calhoun says engineering is not yet ready to offer a significant boost through propulsion on new aircraft. "Advantages will have to result in lower seat cost mile or trip cost" and will have to be derived from fuselage and other factors designing the aircraft besides more efficient propulsion, he says. A new Boeing aircraft may appeal to customers by using "assembly techniques that have not been used at this scale" to result in a lower cost airplane, he says, potentially alluding to 3-D printing techniques to reduce production costs. Boeing still expects its 777X aircraft to be certificated by the fourth quarter of 2023, Calhoun says, adding that "it stands on its own" because Airbus does not have a counterpart planned to directly compete against. "This airplane is going to have an enormous cost advantage per seat, volumetric numbers for freight," he says, touting its potential as a freighter. The US Federal Aviation Administration and Congress are both seeking more information from Boeing about the safety of its processes to manufacture 787 family and 737 family aircraft, following errors discovered in some of those recently built jets. "The FAA rightly wants to know more about the analytics and process controls that we put in place," he says of Boeing's methods to review safety during production. Calhoun remains optimistic of Boeing's goal of certificating the 777X by the end of 2023, adding "that airplane has been flying quite a bit" and the airframer has not discovered any technical issues. Fleet renewal is "the biggest step that the industry can take" to reduce emissions and fuel costs, Calhoun says of airlines retiring older aircraft and replacing them with newer jets during the Covid-19 travel downturn. While mainly large, developed nations are ahead on vaccination so far, Calhoun is optimistic for "a pretty robust recovery" for air travel demand worldwide, whether it comes sooner or later.

The US Federal Aviation Administration says that its associate administrator for aviation safety Ali Bahrami will retire at the end of June, when his deputy Chris Rocheleau will become interim associate administrator while the agency chooses a full-time successor. Bahrami's retirement hints at an ongoing trend of stricter federal oversight of Boeing's 737 Max aircraft programme because he oversaw the certification of that aircraft after becoming associate administrator in 2017. Fatal Max crashes in 2018 and 2019 led to the deaths of 346 people, kicking off ongoing scrutiny about the effectiveness of the FAA's aircraft certification process and its oversight of Boeing. The families of some people who died in 2019 during the crash of a Max jet owned by Ethiopian Airlines have called for Bahrami's resignation, accusing him of enabling the two fatal crashes through lax safety oversight of Max jets. "FAA engineers privately told us Bahrami was a problem because of his bias to protect Boeing," Michael Stumo, whose daughter died in the Ethiopian Airlines crash, says. "Bahrami’s departure is needed for the FAA to regain credibility, escape capture by industry and put safety first." The group of families has also called for the resignation of Boeing chief executive David Calhoun, a Boeing board member who succeeded Dennis Muilenburg as head of the company months after the crash in 2019, arguing that fresh leadership is needed to increase the airframer's focus on engineering. The crash victim families also seek the resignation of FAA administrator Steve Dickson, who was confirmed in 2019 with a mandate from the US Senate to increase safety oversight in the wake of the Max crashes. Dickson insists the Max aircraft are safe following his decision to recertificate them in November 2020. The US Department of Transportation's top inspector, however, commenced a new investigation in April scrutinising how the FAA both grounded and recertificated Max jets. Dickson, who has a five-year term through 2024, said on 20 April during a virtual discussion hosted by the International Aviation Club of Washington that he values "consistency of leadership for the agency" and will lead the FAA "as long as I'm effective". Bahrami will leave the FAA after a total of 30 years with the agency in both engineering and leadership positions. From 1979 to 1989 he worked as an engineer at McDonnell Douglas before its purchase by Boeing. "[Bahrami] has devoted his career to aviation safety, and we thank him for his dedication to this important work," the FAA says. His successor Rocheleau has served as FAA chief of staff and deputy assistant administrator for policy, international, and environment. Boeing faces renewed scrutiny from both Congress and the FAA about the safety of 787 and 737 family aircraft manufacturing. These problems are separate from the automated flight controls that contributed to the fatal Max crashes but reflect ongoing public pressure for greater aircraft safety.

China has postponed an airshow, which was to be held in Shanghai 16-18 June, amid a recent surge in Covid-19 cases in the southern Guangdong province. "Due to the repeated outbreak of the recent epidemic, some enterprises scheduled to participate in the exhibition cannot come to Shanghai from high- and medium-risk areas," the organisers of the Shanghai International Aerospace Technology and Equipment Exhibition 2021 (Air Expo Shanghai) said in a notice dated 1 June. It adds: "Given the instability of the epidemic, the specific dates and venue of the exhibition will be announced later." According to its website, Air Expo Shanghai caters to the civil, commercial and general aviation sectors, and has the support of China's major airlines – Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, and privately owned Juneyao Airlines – as well as local authorities and enterprises, including Comac, AVIC and the Shanghai Airport Authority. The airshow was last held in 2019. China is rolling out mass testing across Guangzhou, the provincial capital of Guangdong, which saw a spike in Covid-19 cases since 21 May, state media Xinhua reported on 30 May. The same report cites Chen Bin, the vice-director of Guangdong's provincial health commission, as saying that all the locally transmitted Covid-19 cases found in Guangzhou's latest resurgence are linked to the B1617 variant, which was first reported in India. On 1 June, Xinhua reported that Guangzhou has implemented "closed-off management" on 38 sub-districts within the city; local residents are subject to strict quarantine measures and must stay indoors. Data shows that tracked flights into Guangzhou Baiyun International airport and Shenzhen Bao'an International airport, both in the Guangdong province and among China's five busiest airports by traffic, showed a marked decline after 28 May. From 29 May to 1 June, an average of 350 flights arrived at Guangzhou each day, and 360 at Shenzhen, levels last seen around mid-February, during the Lunar New Year period when authorities discouraged travel to limit the spread of Covid-19. Over 1-20 May, Guangzhou received an average of nearly 540 flights each day and Shenzhen, around 420.