A Boeing 777x is displayed through the International Paris Air Show on the ParisLe Bourget Airport, on June 20, 2023.
Geoffroy Van Der Hasselt | AFP | Getty Images
Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun is optimistic in regards to the recovery of travel demand, which he said is stronger than he expected.
“Yes, it’s resilient. It’s more resilient than I ever would have imagined coming out of Covid — a whole lot of pent up demand for just passenger traffic and tourism, and businesses coming back,” Calhoun told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia.”
Calhoun said order books and demand for proposals to fulfill that demand are “as robust as [he’s] ever seen in his profession.”
When asked about swirling recession fears, he said those concerns aren’t really popping up within the aviation industry.
If anything, that’s the problem we’re all wrestling with: how does the availability chain regain the resilience it had before Covid in order that it could meet these demands.
Dave Calhoun
CEO of Boeing
“If anything, that’s the problem we’re all wrestling with: how does the availability chain regain the resilience it had before Covid in order that it could meet these demands,” he said.
Boeing delivered 35 planes in August, down from 43 aircraft in July. Each Boeing and rival Airbus said supply chain constraints are curtailing their abilities to ramp up production.
In May, the World Travel & Tourism Council had forecast that the worldwide travel and tourism sector is not going to reach full recovery this yr. And while China’s domestic airline capability has fully recovered, international flight capability remains to be lower than half of pre-pandemic levels, a Skift Research report showed.
Still, Calhoun said, “I’m actually bullish with respect to my company, and China.”
“They need more lift like everybody else on the earth,” he said, adding that he hopes the geopolitical concerns surrounding China will “begin to dissipate a bit.”
As for competition from China’s homegrown C919 jet produced by Comac, Calhoun said it should take a “pretty very long time” before it becomes a serious competitor globally for Boeing or Airbus. And even when that was the case, it will not be the “worst thing,” given travel demand.
“We’ve a large robust market growing at a really healthy pace,” he said. “So by 2050, truthfully, having three competitors to satisfy that’s it isn’t the worst thing on the earth for for aviation. The truth is, I view it as thing.”
