Kenya Insights

Tag: Boeing

  • Qatar Airways Places A ‘Record’ Order For 160 Planes From Boeing, Trump Announces

    Qatar Airways Places A ‘Record’ Order For 160 Planes From Boeing, Trump Announces

    US President Donald Trump said Wednesday Qatar Airways had placed a “record” order for 160 planes from Boeing, as he signed a raft of deals in Doha alongside Qatar’s emir.

    The order, which the White House said was Boeing’s largest ever for wide-body jets, deepens ties between the US aerospace giant and the giant Middle East carrier.

    Qatar Airways will honor a “$96 billion agreement to acquire up to 210 American-made Boeing 787 Dreamliner and 777X aircraft powered by GE Aerospace engines,” according to a White House fact sheet.

    “This is Boeing’s largest-ever widebody order and largest-ever 787 order,” it said.

    Comprehensive details about the order were not available. Boeing declined immediate comment.

    The order represents a win for new Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, although analysts noted that the planes won’t be delivered for at least five years due to industry backlogs.

    Both Boeing and rival Airbus, which has also sold extensively to Qatar Airways, have struggled in recent years with supply chain problems as they have taken thousands of plane orders amid strong airline demand. Boeing has also been beset with safety and labor problems that have limited output.

    Ortberg joined Trump for part of Wednesday’s signing ceremony that also included defense agreements and the purchase by Qatar of American MQ-9B drones, after about two hours of talks with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.

    “It’s over $200 billion but 160 in terms of the jets. That’s fantastic. So that’s a record,” Trump said, adding: “It’s the largest order of jets in the history of Boeing. That’s pretty good.”

    The list prices of the 777X and 787 Dreamliner suggest the total value of the Boeing deal is well under $200 billion. The $96 billion figure in the White House factsheet also appears to include some business for GE Aerospace.

    Plane backlog

    Trump’s Qatar visit is the second destination of his Gulf tour, after a first stop in Riyadh, where he made a surprise announcement lifting sanctions on Syria and met the country’s president.

    Relations between Washington and Doha have been in the spotlight over Qatar’s offer to Trump of a $400 million luxury aircraft to serve as a new Air Force One and then pass into his personal use.

    Since 2016, Boeing has received 118 gross orders from Qatar Airways and delivered 65 planes to the carrier, according to Boeing’s website.

    Morningstar analyst Nicolas Owens said the order represents “good news” for Boeing, but noted that it would be years before Boeing receives revenues for the jets in Wednesday’s order.

    “If you’re ordering a plane today it’s not going to be on your landing strip for at least five years,” Owens said.

    Owens said the announcement is also a “vote of confidence” in the much-delayed 777X, which is still be certified, with Boeing pointing to first deliveries in 2026.

    Ortberg joined Boeing in August 2024 following a leadership shakeup after a series of safety and quality control problems. He has focused on upgrading Boeing’s operations under the close scrutiny of US air safety regulators, saying improving Boeing’s corporate culture will take time.

    Shares of Boeing rose 1.6 percent after midday.

    (AFP)

  • Trump Awards Boeing Major Contract To Build ‘Most Lethal’ Fighter Jets

    Trump Awards Boeing Major Contract To Build ‘Most Lethal’ Fighter Jets

    President Donald Trump has awarded Boeing a multi-billion dollar contract to build the US Air Force’s most advanced fighter jet, the Next Generation Air Dominance aircraft.

    Trump described the high-speed stealth aircraft, dubbed the F-47, as the “most lethal aircraft ever built” and said a version has been secretly flying for the last five years.

    The jet will replace Lockheed Martin’s F-22 with an aircraft that is also designed to fly alongside unmanned drones in combat, Trump announced at the White House.

    The exact value of the contract remains undisclosed, but it is a boost for Boeing, which has struggled with sluggish commercial and military sales, as well as high-profile safety issues.

    The design of the “sixth-generation” aircraft remains a closely-guarded secret, but reportedly includes high advanced sensors and engines in addition to their stealth capabilities.

    An artistic rendering alongside Trump in the Oval Office of the White House only showed a small part of the aircraft and front landing gear.

    “There’s never been anything even close to it, from speed to maneuverability, to what it can have, to payload,” Trump said.

    Trump said the US military selected the number 47 – which he described as a “beautiful number” – for the aircraft. He is the 45th and 47th President of the US.

    “The generals picked that title,” he said.

    The Boeing deal also marks a defeat for competitor Lockheed Martin, which was recently eliminated from a separate competition to build a next-generation aircraft for the US Navy.

    Sales of the company’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, a fifth-generation aircraft, could also be threatened by mounting trade tensions between the US and its allies abroad.

    Canada’s new prime minister, Mark Carney, has asked defence minister Bill Blair to review its purchase of the aircraft, which was developed with Canada as a partnership.

    In Portugal, the country’s outgoing defence minister told local media that the country is re-thinking a purchase of F-35s to replace its older aircraft as a result of “recent positions” taken by the US government.

    Each F-35 costs approximately $85m (£65.8m), with the price rising up to $150m with spare parts and support infrastructure included.

    About 1,100 of the aircraft have been built, with F-35s in service with 16 militaries around the world.

    Several countries are reportedly now mulling purchasing aircraft from European manufacturers such as Dassault and Saab, even if those aircraft lack the stealth capabilities of the F-35.

    Elon Musk, a key ally of Trump’s, has previously expressed scepticism of manned aircraft.

    He was at the Pentagon ahead of the F-47 announcement on Friday, on a visit which defence secretary Pete Hegseth said was related to cost-cutting.

    (BBC)

  • Another Whistleblower Lifts Lid On A New Boeing Safety Concern

    Another Whistleblower Lifts Lid On A New Boeing Safety Concern

    Boeing is facing new pressure after a whistleblower reported safety concerns over the manufacturing of some of its planes to US regulators.

    Engineer Sam Salehpour accused Boeing of taking shortcuts in the construction of its 787 and 777 jets.

    He claimed he was “threatened with termination” after raising concerns with bosses.

    But Boeing said the claims were “inaccurate” and added it was confident its planes were safe.

    “The issues raised have been subject to rigorous engineering examination under [Federal Aviation Administration] oversight,” the company said.

    “This analysis has validated that these issues do not present any safety concerns and the aircraft will maintain its service life over several decades.”

    Shares in the plane manufacturer sank almost 2% on Tuesday after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it was investigating the claims, and the company reported it had delivered just 83 planes to customers in the first three months of the year – the smallest number since 2021.

    The whistleblower complaint, which was first reported by the New York Times, is the latest incident to focus attention on the safety of planes made by US-based Boeing, one of the world’s two major producers of commercial planes.

    The company was already facing criminal investigation and other legal troubles, after an unused exit door broke off of one of its smaller 737 Max 9 planes shortly after take-off in January.

    Passengers escaped serious injury but the incident has plunged the company into crisis, forcing a temporary grounding of dozens of 737 Max 9 planes, drawing regulatory probes and prompting Boeing to dramatically slow production of its planes.

    The company coming under intense scrutiny again led its chief executive David Calhoun to announce last month that he would step down by the end of the year.

    On Tuesday, attorneys for engineer Mr Salehpour said Boeing had made decisions for 787 aircraft assembly which placed stress on joints that linked up parts of the body of the jets, an issue affecting more than 1,000 planes.

    In a whistleblower complaint filed with the FAA in January, he alleged the method could reduce the lifespan of the plane.

    “These problems are the direct result of Boeing’s decision in recent years to prioritize profits over safety, and a regulator in the FAA that has become too deferential to industry,” his lawyers, Debra Katz and Lisa Banks, said in a statement.

    The attorneys added Mr Salehpour had been transferred to work on the 777 plane after he raised concerns.

    They said he had soon observed other issues in the assembly of that plane.

    “He was threatened with termination, excluded from important meetings, projects, and communication, denied reasonable requests for medical leave, assigned work outside of his expertise, and effectively declared persona non grata to his colleagues,” they said.

    The 787 Dreamliner is a bigger plane than the 737, often used on international flights. It has been flying since 2011, but almost from the start has been the target of quality complaints.

    Boeing eventually slowed production and stopped deliveries for almost two years, responding to issues that had been raised. The FAA in 2022 cleared Boeing to resume deliveries.

    The FAA, which has increased its oversight of Boeing since the door plug blowout in January, said in a statement that it encouraged people in the aviation industry to share information.

    “We thoroughly investigate all reports,” the agency said when asked about the report.

  • Kenyan Families Of Ethiopian Airlines Crash Victims Agrees To Take The Sh10B Offer From Boeing But To Continue Suing

    Kenyan Families Of Ethiopian Airlines Crash Victims Agrees To Take The Sh10B Offer From Boeing But To Continue Suing

    Kenyan families of crash victims of the Ethiopian airline have accepted Boeing’s Sh10 billion compensation.

    Boeing revealed on Tuesday that they were setting aside the money to assist families of the victims as well as the communities affected during the tragedies of October (Indonesia) and March (Ethiopia) where 346 people died.

    On March 10 this year, a Boeing 737 MAX jet operated by Ethiopian crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa killing all 157 people on board among them 32 Kenyans.

    The plane maker said they will channel the money through governments and undisclosed charity organisations.

    In a statement, Boeing said the families affected did not have to abandon the right to sue the company even if they will accept the money.

    But the Kenyan families who lost their kin have issued a rejoinder, saying they will not be hoodwinked into “public relation stunts” by Boeing.

    The 32 Kenyan families have accepted the money despite their stand that Boeing will used this tactic to make the company look remorseful in order to sway the minds of the jury in the US where the cases have been filed.

    “They have tried to whip emotions of families. They are apologising in a colourful manner yet they know their plane was faulty,” said lawyers Irungu Kang’ata and Stephen Gachie.

    The Kenyan families have also told Boeing that the channels used by the company are against their wishes.

    The say the channels used have no guarantee that the funds will rich them directly.