DUBAI: The head of one of Boeing Co’s biggest customers, Dubai’s Emirates, wants the planemaker to demonstrate fundamental changes after producing a flawed 737 MAX jet and has urged it to recognize “culpability and accountability” from the very top.
Influential Emirates President Tim Clark said a crisis over crashes of its 737 MAX had damaged the air travel industry as a whole, but he was confident the redesigned jet was safe.
“Boeing need to take a good hard look at themselves; I’m sure they have,” Clark said.
“But they have to (show) evidence to people like the airline community, the traveling public, that they have made the changes that are required of them in a transparent manner,” he said, while also suggesting a shift of emphasis on financial matters.
“That (can) only be done at board level and executed ... at senior level,” Clark said. “I believe they still have work to do in Boeing to get themselves sorted out ... There is a top-down culpability and accountability and they need to recognize that.”
Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The comments from the head of one of the world’s biggest carriers, with Boeing jets worth over $50 billion at list prices on order, are among the most direct airline criticisms since a 20-month ban on MAX flights was lifted in December.
Last week Boeing agreed to pay $2.5 billion in a deal with federal prosecutors over a fraud conspiracy charge over the MAX’s flawed development.
Clark’s critique, aimed at the highest echelons of the world’s largest aerospace company, stood in contrast to the settlement’s focus on two lower-level Boeing employees who prosecutors say deceived US regulators.
The jet, a staple of short-haul travel across the world, was grounded in March 2019 after crashes linked to flawed software.
“Clearly there were process and practices, attitudes - DNA if you like - that needed to be resolved from the top down. It is pointless shuffling the deck,” Clark said, though he stopped short of laying out precise actions Boeing should take.
Boeing should understand the magnitude of damage to the industry and make “fundamental structural changes,” Clark said.
Since the crashes, Boeing has fired its former chief executive, added a board safety committee and agreed to strengthen internal controls. Boeing however turned for its new CEO to an insider, Dave Calhoun, a long-serving board member.
It says it has learned “many hard lessons” from the crisis.
On Wednesday, Calhoun named Mike Delaney chief aerospace safety officer, a new role.
The US Federal Aviation Administration, which has admitted mistakes during certification, has seen its global leadership tarnished by the crisis.
Clark backed the European Union Aviation Safety Agency for taking a “very hard line” over the re-design.
“This isn’t a sort of motherhood level scrutiny,” he said. “This is a detailed assessment of everything that makes that aircraft fly, then I think it should something that people should be relaxed about flying in.”
Emirates boss hits out at Boeing over 737 MAX flaws
https://arab.news/cr2kx
Emirates boss hits out at Boeing over 737 MAX flaws
- A crisis over crashes of Boeing’s 737 MAX had damaged the air travel industry as a whole
- ‘Boeing need to take a good hard look at themselves; I’m sure they have’
AI will never replace human creativity, says SRMG CEO
- Speaking to Maya Hojeij, senior business anchor at Asharq with Bloomberg, Jomana R. Alrashid expressed pride in SRMG platforms that had absorbed and adopted AI
RIYADH: Jomana R. Alrashid, CEO of Saudi Research and Media Group, highlighted how AI cannot replace human creativity during a session at The Family Office’s “Investing Is a Sea” summit at Shura Island on Friday.
“You can never replace human creativity. Journalism at the end of the day, and content creation, is all about storytelling, and that’s a creative role that AI does not have the power to do just yet,” Alrashid told the investment summit.
“We will never eliminate that human role which comes in to actually tell that story, do the actual investigative reporting around it, make sure to be able to also tell you what’s news or what’s factual from what’s wrong ... what’s a misinformation from bias, and that’s the bigger role that the editorial player does in the newsroom.”
Speaking on the topic of AI, moderated by Maya Hojeij, senior business anchor at Asharq with Bloomberg, the CEO expressed her pride in SRMG platforms that had absorbed and adopted AI in a way that was “transformative.”
“We are now translating all of our content leveraging AI. We are also now being able to create documentaries leveraging AI. We now have AI-facilitated fact-checking, AI facilities clipping, transcribing. This is what we believe is the future.”
Alrashid was asked what the journalist of the future would look like. “He’s a journalist and an engineer. He’s someone who needs to understand data. And I think this is another topic that is extremely important, understanding the data that you’re working with,” she said.
“This is something that AI has facilitated as well. I must say that over the past 20 years in the region, especially when it comes to media companies, we did not understand the importance of data.”
The CEO highlighted that previously, media would rely on polling, surveys or viewership numbers, but now more detailed information about what viewers wanted was available.
During the fireside session, Alrashid was asked how the international community viewed the Middle Eastern media. Alrashid said that over the past decades it had played a critical role in informing wider audiences about issues that were extremely complex — politically, culturally and economically — and continued to play that role.
“Right now it has a bigger role to play, given the role again of social media, citizen journalists, content creators. But I also do believe that it has been facilitated by the power that AI has. Now immediately, you can ensure that that kind of content that is being created by credible, tier-A journalists, world-class journalists, can travel beyond its borders, can travel instantly to target different geographies, different people, different countries, in different languages, in different formats.”
She said that there was a big opportunity for Arab media not to be limited to simply Arab consumption, but to finally transcend borders and be available in different languages and to cater to their audiences.
The CEO expressed optimism about the future, emphasizing the importance of having a clear vision, a strong strategy, and full team alignment.
Traditional advertising models, once centered on television and print, were rapidly changing, with social media platforms now dominating advertising revenue.
“It’s drastically changing. Ultimately in the past, we used to compete with one another over viewership. But now we’re also competing with the likes of social media platforms; 80 percent of the advertising revenue in the Middle East goes to the social media platforms, but that means that there’s 80 percent interest opportunities.”
She said that the challenge was to create the right content on these platforms that engaged the target audiences and enabled commercial partnerships. “I don’t think this is a secret, but brands do not like to advertise with news channels. Ultimately, it’s always related with either conflict or war, which is a deterrent to advertisers.
“And that’s why we’ve entered new verticals such as sports. And that’s why we also double down on our lifestyle vertical. Ultimately, we have the largest market share when it comes to lifestyle ... And we’ve launched new platforms such as Billboard Arabia that gives us an entry into music.”
Alrashid said this was why the group was in a strong position to counter the decline in advertising revenues across different platforms, and by introducing new products.
“Another very important IP that we’ve created is events attached to the brands that have been operating in the region for 30-plus years. Any IP or any title right now that doesn’t have an event attached to it is missing out on a very big commercial opportunity that allows us to sit in a room, exchange ideas, talk to one another, get to know one another behind the screen.”
The CEO said that disruption was now constant and often self-driving, adding that the future of the industry was often in storytelling and the ability to innovate by creating persuasive content that connected directly with the audience.
“But the next disruption is going to continue to come from AI. And how quickly this tool and this very powerful technology evolves. And whether we are in a position to cope with it, adapt to it, and absorb it fully or not.”
