In recent news, Boeing has announced a change in senior leadership for its Commercial Airplanes division. Ousted CEO of the division, Kevin McAllister, will be giving up the role that he has filled for the last three years to Stan Deal. Prior to this move, Deal was the president and CEO of Boeing Global Services. With new leadership comes a potentially different strategy for success. So will the new CEO of Commercial Airplanes pursue the 797?

"Our entire Boeing team is focused on operational excellence, aligned with our values of safety, quality and integrity, and we're committed to delivering on our commitments and regaining trust with our regulators, customers and other stakeholders. Stan brings extensive operational experience at Commercial Airplanes and trusted relationships with our airline customers and industry partners" -Boeing President and CEO Dennis Muilenburg

Who is Stan Deal?

Stan Deal
Stan Deal brings plenty of experience, having been with Boeing since 1986, as the new Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO. Photo: Boeing

Stan Deal has been at Boeing since 1986. Before this appointment, Deal was the president and CEO of Boeing Global Services since November 2016. His experience spans multiple fields as he previously has worked in Boeing’s Commercial Airplanes division. In fact, his former leadership roles have included work in managing Boeing Commercial Airplanes’ supply chain. He also previously served as Boeing’s sales leader for Asia-Pacific.

As the former CEO of Boeing Global Services, Deal would have had a wealth of experience managing services in engineering, digital aviation and analytics. Furthermore, Boeing Global Services deals with supply chain logistics and training support. The division's aim is to "deliver agile, cost-competitive solutions, regardless of the original equipment manufacturer, so customers can reduce costs, drive efficiency and optimize operations".

With this in mind, we can only speculate what kind of mindset and focus Deal will bring to his new division - and how that might affect the NMA/797 program.

Boeing 777X emirates
Having a smaller wingspan on the ground enables the 777X to use the same airports as the 777 classic. Photo: Emirates

The fate of the NMA/797 program

Given his previous experience in Boeing Global Services as well as managing Commercial Airplanes' supply chain, we would hope that Deal has acquired a solid grasp of Boeing's strengths and limitations. Usually, those with a strong background in logistics, operations, and analytics are more grounded in the practical realities of a challenging situation and less prone to making demands that exceed available resources.

The challenging situation here is the two-pronged conundrum that is the 777X and the 737 MAX. The 777X program faces challenges due to issues with the GE9X engine while the 737 MAX has yet to be re-certified as airlines around the world are stuck with planes that can't carry paying passengers.

Therefore, the new CEO may opt to delay NMA progress until the 737 MAX crisis is fully resolved and 777X is certified as well. Until these existing programs resolve their respective issues, it would seem unwise to divert company resources to another aircraft program.

An article by AirlineRatings quotes a special report, Commercial Aircraft: Demand, MAX, NEO, engines, widebodies. Taken from the report that is written by Global research and investment firm Berstein, it says:

“we expect [the NMA] will be launched, although no decisions should be expected before resolution of MAX issues...Boeing’s New Midsize Airplane (NMA) appears to still have significant momentum toward launch despite the fact that we do not believe there is complete agreement within Boeing."

Boeing 737 MAX
Boeing's 737 MAX grounding will likely continue through the rest of the year. Photo: Boeing

Conclusion

We think Boeing's new Commercial Airplanes CEO will indeed pursue the 797/NMA, but probably not before solving the problems of the existing aircraft programs. Boeing does need to remain competitive afterall, and an updated replacement is badly needed for aircraft like the 767.

Do you think Stan Deal will move ahead with the NMA/797 program? Let us know in the comments!

UPDATE. Boeing has responded to our request for comment saying the following:

While the company’s highest priority is the safe return to service of the 737 MAX, we continue to work on NMA, with a team dedicated to the evaluation of the business case.

Once we complete that work, we will begin the two step process of first making a decision to offer and then a decision to launch. This is consistent with the gated process we’ve followed on previous development programs.