Trump blasts Boeing Air Force One delays, but airlines grow upbeat

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Trump blasts Boeing Air Force One delays, but airlines grow upbeat

Boeing 737s on the ground in Renton, Washington.

Leslie Josephs | CNBC

President Donald Trump expressed frustration in recent days about the long wait for a pair of Boeing 747s that will serve as the new Air Force One planes.

The planes are years behind schedule. Trump negotiated the $4 billion contract for the aircraft during his first term, and it isn’t clear whether they’ll be ready during his current one. Cost-overruns have totaled more than $2 billion to date.

Trump advisor Elon Musk is working with Boeing in hopes of delivering the aircraft faster, the manufacturer’s chief executive Kelly Ortberg reiterated on Thursday.

“The president’s clearly not happy with the delivery timing. I think he’s made that well known,” Ortberg said at a Barclays industrials conference. “Elon Musk is actually helping us a lot in working through the requirements … to help us get the things that are non-value added constraints out of the way so that we can move faster and get the President those airplanes delivered.”

Ortberg called Musk, CEO of SpaceX, which competes with Boeing’s defense and space unit, a “brilliant guy” who can “pretty quickly ascertain the difference between technical requirement and things that we can move out of the way.”

Aboard one of the current presidential 747s, Trump told reporters on Wednesday that he is considering alternatives.

“We may buy a plane or get a plane, or something,” he said, according to Reuters. Trump toured a 747 that was parked at Florida’s Palm Beach International Airport over the weekend, the outlet reported.

First Lady Melania Trump laughs as she watches US President Donald Trump cut with a saber into a cake representation of the new Air Force One design during the Commander-In-Chief inaugural ball at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC, on Jan. 20, 2025.

Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Frustration is nothing new for Boeing’s airline customers who faced long delays for aircraft just as the post-pandemic travel ***** was taking hold. A near-catastrophic door-plug blow out in January 2024 further slowed Boeing deliveries and prompted a leadership change.

Now some customers are growing more upbeat. Executives told CNBC that it appears the manufacturer has turned a corner under Ortberg, who took the helm in August.

“Boeing is doing a pretty miraculous job of turning around and becoming more reliable as a supplier,” United Airlines CFO Mike Leskinen said Wednesday at the same Barclays conference. “Our confidence that our MAX aircraft are going to be delivered on schedule has never been greater at my tenure at United Airlines.”

Bob Jordan, CEO of all-Boeing 737 carrier Southwest Airlines, said on a Jan. 30 earnings call: “While they still have much work to do, they appear to be on a good path, and we are feeling more optimistic.”

Speaking at the Barclays conference on Thursday, Boeing’s Ortberg said he doesn’t see any supply chain problems that would prevent the manufacturer from ramping up production of its cash-cow 737 Max planes, its best-seller, to 38 per month in the coming months.

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