Boeing Commercial CEO McAllister Leaves

Boeing has ousted Kevin McAllister, the head of its commercial aircraft division as the eight-month grounding of the 737 MAX stretches on.

McAllister, who was appointed CEO of Boeing commercial in November 2016, has received criticism from some quarters for his handling of the FAA’s grounding of the MAX family of aircraft after two fatal crashes caused the deaths of 346 people.

“We’re grateful to Kevin for his dedicated and tireless service to Boeing, its customers and its communities during a challenging time, and for his commitment to support this transition,” Boeing chief executive Dennis Muilenburg said.

Muilenburg himself received bad news last week when he was stripped of the chairmanship of the company board.

McAllister has been replaced by Stan Deal, a 33-year veteran of the company, who was head of Boeing Global Services prior to the promotion. Ted Colbert will replace Deal at services.

“Stan brings extensive operational experience at Commercial Airplanes and trusted relationships with our airline customers and industry partners,” Muilenburg said.

“Ted brings to our Global Services business an enterprise approach to customers and strong digital business expertise - a key component of our long-term growth plans.”

In turn, Colbert has been replaced by Vishwa Uddanwadiker as interim chief information officer and senior vice president of Information Technology & Data Analytics.

“The Boeing board fully supports these leadership moves,” chairman David Calhoun said. “Boeing will emerge stronger than ever from its current challenges and the changes we're making throughout Boeing will benefit the flying public well into the future.”

Boeing is making progress with the re-certification of the 737 MAX. The FAA now has the final version of updated control software, but with aviation regulators around the world expected to work through the changes at their own rate, a return to service is still some weeks away.

North American operators of MAX aircraft have removed the plane from their schedules until early next year, with Southwest last week extending its removal until February 8.