A senior Boeing executive has reassured passengers about the safety and quality of the plane maker's aircraft, but declined to comment directly on the Air India crash as the investigation continues.
Darren Hulst, Boeing's vice president of marketing, was speaking during a press briefing at the Paris Air Show.
“With regards to the Air India tragedy, our hearts, our thoughts and our prayers are with all the families that have been impacted by this, as well as our partner and long-term customer Air India,” he said.
Mr Hulst insisted customers and passengers “should be confident” about the safety of Boeing aircraft. “Longer term, we all know how important safety and quality are to our business,” he added.
Boeing has scaled back its presence at the biennial show in Le Bourget on the outskirts of the French capital following the crash involving one of its 787 wide-body jets operated by Air India last week.
Chief executive Kelly Ortberg and head of commercial planes unit Stephanie Pope both withdrew from the event and the US manufacturer has yet to announce any new orders at the expo.
The Air India crash is another setback for Boeing, which had been in the process of rebuilding trust after a series of safety and production quality lapses.
Asked whether the accident has dented customer confidence and if it could affect demand for the 787 Dreamliner, Mr Hulst suggested it is too early in the investigation to come to any conclusions. “Demonstrating and proving that credibility over time is not just something that we do overnight,” he said.
Re-establishing that credibility is part of a long-term commitment to re-instil safety and quality values throughout the business while continuing to communicate with customers, Mr Hulst explained.
“We will continue to support our customers,” he added. “We're there on the ground today with our partners at Air India to support them and that is not going to change.
“In the longer term, those values continue to drive how we build, how we design and how we support our fleets. I have full confidence in that continuing.”
Mr Hulst was speaking as Boeing released its 20-year commercial market forecast, which shows that there is global demand for 43,600 new passenger and freighter jets by 2044.
Meanwhile, India’s aviation safety regulator said on Tuesday that it found no major safety issues with Air India’s fleet of Boeing 787 jets during its inspections, following the crash last week that killed all but one of the 242 people on board flight AI 171.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation completed one-time checks on 24 of the 33 Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft operated by the carrier, Bloomberg reported, citing a statement from the regulator. Air India is operating 27 of the jets, though six are currently grounded for maintenance, the DGCA said.
While Boeing's presence at the Paris Air Show was muted, European rival Airbus on Tuesday announced a deal with budget airline VietJet for up to 150 single-aisle aircraft. The Vietnamese airline has ordered 100 of the A321 Neo aircraft, with the potential to add another 50 in the future, Airbus said.
