Boeing has named board chair David Calhoun its next chief executive in succession to Dennis Muilenburg, who has resigned from the company. Muilenburg has left his chief executive and board posts effectively immediately, though Calhoun will not take the struggling company’s reins as CEO until 13 January 2020, Boeing says in a 23 December media release. Boeing chief financial officer Greg Smith will serve as interim chief executive until Calhoun takes over, Boeing says. “I strongly believe in the future of Boeing and the 737 Max,” Calhoun says. “I am honoured to lead this great company and the 150,000 dedicated employees who are working hard to create the future of aviation.” Calhoun has been a Boeing board member since 2009 and is senior managing director at private equity company Blackstone Group. Previously, he worked for 28 years at General Electric, running that company’s transportation, aircraft engines, reinsurance and lighting business units, Boeing says. Calhoun was also board chair and chief executive of data and marketing company Nielsen Holdings. “Not at all a big shock,” Teal Group aerospace analyst Richard Aboulafia says of the leadership shift. “Muilenburg wasn’t exactly inspiring confidence, and the production line shutdown wasn’t handled very well at all. Calhoun is well-respected and should provide short-term stability, although given his private equity background he might be the wrong person as the long-term manager of an engineering company.” News of Muilenburg’s departure comes seven weeks after Calhoun defended embattled Muilenburg, calling the former chief “an asset” who “didn’t create” the 737 Max problem. But in the weeks since, Boeing’s situation seemingly became more critical, with the Federal Aviation Administration’s chief Steven Dickson criticising Boeing’s 737 Max certification timeline as unrealistically optimistic. One week ago Boeing announced it will temporarily halt 737 production in January, and major Max customer United Airlines delayed to June its expected return of 737 Max flights. Boeing says the leadership change will “bring renewed commitment to transparency and better communications with regulations and customers in safely returning the 737 Max to service”. “The board of directors decided that a change in leadership was necessary to restore confidence in the company moving forward as it works to repair relationships with regulators, customers and all other stakeholders,” Boeing’s release says. “Under the company’s new leadership, Boeing will operate with a renewed commitment to full transparency, including effective and proactive communication with the FAA, other global regulators and its customers.” Board member Lawrence Kellner, former Continental Airlines chief executive, will succeed Calhoun as head of Boeing’s board, taking the title of non-executive chair. Kellner says Calhoun has “deep industry experience and a proven track record of strong leadership, and he recognises the challenges we must confront”.

Source: Cirium

Liquidators of Thomas Cook Group have warned that most of the company’s divisions are unlikely to return a dividend to creditors following its collapse in September. The official receiver says that the group collapsed with around £9 billion ($11.6 billion) in total liabilities. These included £5.7 billion in debts to other group companies and a further £1.77 billion to banks and other lenders. Trade creditors are owed £885 million and £585 million is due to customers who booked package-holidays and flights, although this figure does not include a claim from the Civil Aviation Authority which has yet to be fully quantified. But the receiver estimates total asset realisations at just £176-244 million – a figure which excludes the cost of the realisation, it states. Sale of retail outlets, landing slots at airports, intellectual property rights and other assets have already been achieved. But sales of other parts of the companies – including aircraft and engineering stock – have yet to be finalised The receiver warns that, although certain assets have been realised, some companies did not have assets and creditors of these firms “will not benefit from these realisations”. Twenty-six companies were wound up in the Thomas Cook Group liquidation on 23 September, and 19 of these are listed as having “unlikely” prospects for a dividend, it states. Among the companies from which a “possible” dividend might emerge are Thomas Cook Airlines, Thomas Cook Retail, and Thomas Cook Group Tour Operations. Another 27 UK companies in the group were subsequently wound up on 8 November, and the official receiver says it will report separately on these in due course.

Source: Cirium

United Airlines will pull its 14 Boeing 737 Max aircraft from its schedules through 4 June as the US Federal Aviation Administration's safety review of the grounded aircraft extends into 2020 and carriers remain uncertain when those fleets could be cleared to return to service. The Chicago-based carrier had previously removed the Max from its schedule through 4 March. The airline has 14 737 Max jets in storage, with 144 more of the type on order, according to Cirium fleets data. In total, United Airlines has 764 aircraft of various types in service. American Airlines and Southwest Airlines, which have extended cancellations of their Max fleets through April, have removed the aircraft from their schedules one month at a time. United's announcement departs from that month-by-month cancellation trend. The airline will cancel up to 108 flights per day through June during the grounding, said United spokesman Frank Benenati on 20 December. The extended cancellation will help the network team plan the year ahead, he says. "By moving the return to service date back more than just a month, as we have done previously throughout 2019, it allows us to have more certainty by providing our customers and our operation a firmer and more definitive timeline," Benenati says. "We will better help our customers by reducing the number of our passengers we need to reassign to a new aircraft or rebook on a different flight."

Source: Cirium