Boeing executives are getting to know their products and those of competitors like they’ve probably never done before after their new boss all but grounded the company’s fleet of Challenger 650 business jets. Bloomberg used ADS-B tracking sites to deduce that use of the Challengers has dropped 80 percent with just 29 flights in October compared to 149 in August. Instead of red carpets and catered meals, the 19 C-suite staff are munching pretzels in Economy with the customers of their customers on the planes their company makes along with those from Airbus, Embraer and other competitors.
It’s all part of a massive cost-cutting effort to try to stem the bleeding at Boeing, which has suffered an embarrassing assortment of production and quality control issues in the past few years. According to Bloomberg’s research, the Challengers flew 4500 hours on 1800 flights in 2023 burning $14 million in fuel alone. Ortberg has also ordered his senior staff to spend more time on the shop floor.
