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BCA president and CEO Stephanie Pope took up the role in March 2024; she is also Boeing Company EVP.
At Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA), there is a renewed sense of confidence and capability after years of disarray, delayed programs, leadership changes and questions about airliner production quality and reliability.
BCA president and CEO Stephanie Pope took up the role in March 2024 (she is also Boeing Company EVP). A few months later, Kelly Ortberg was appointed Boeing Company president. It could well be argued that BCA’s turnaround began, and continues, under the leaderships of Pope and Ortberg. They cancelled plans to attend the Paris Air Show last year after the crash of an Air India 787. Boeing, out of respect to Air India and the victims of the crash, switched to a very low-key show presence.
At Farnborough, the company is planning a more normal schedule of program updates, market outlook briefings and customer hosting. ATW believes Pope will be among the company’s senior leadership delegation.
Among the OEM’s show exhibits will be a full-size 777X interior section. Boeing’s key air show themes will include engineering excellence, development programs, investments in new capabilities and long‑term global partnerships.
Pope talked with ATW in June for an exclusive cover feature in the current edition of ATW magazine. While she repeatedly cautioned there was still work to do, Pope expressed confidence in what she described as “a phenomenal job focusing on restoring trust with our customers and with our regulator as well as our suppliers and really all stakeholders.”
The days leading up to the interview included a whirlwind of BCA milestones that signaled a more assured company. Boeing delivered two 787-9s, the first of up to 72 ordered by new Saudi airline Riyadh Air, from the manufacturer’s Charleston, South Carolina, factory. Boeing also gained Rate 47 approval from FAA for the 737 MAX production line. And then Boeing gained FAA Type Inspection Authorization (TIA) Phase 4B approval for the 777-9.
Pope described the TIA-4B achievement as “a big, big milestone” toward certification.
“There are five phases of TIA. We had gotten TIA-4A, which was a smaller piece. "...4B is a significantly larger piece, one of the biggest pieces remaining for us to get approval to complete flight tests, [and] is focusing on systems like avionics,” she said.
Asked what her top priority for the rest of this year, Pope didn’t hesitate. “Certification,” she replied.
“Certify the [737 MAX-7] dash seven, the [787-10] dash 10 and the [777-9] dash nine.”
Boeing also announced in May that it would open a fourth 737 MAX final assembly line (FAL) in early July, located just north of Seattle. Pope described that move as “very significant in terms of production resiliency and capacity.
“We want to use that fourth line for Rate 52, if you want to think about it tied to a rate, but it really helps give us more capacity and resiliency. There’s a lot of dynamics that happen and this just gives us more space. …This [fourth FAL] gives us a lot more flexibility to stay predictable to our customer and hit their commitments while building our airplanes differently.”
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