Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said he is working with the Trump administration to ensure the company's trade war with China has "unexpected consequences" that suggests that the country buys more aircraft to reduce its trade deficit with the United States.
In an interview with the Financial Times at the helm in August, Ortberg also said that the new aircraft expected to replace its best-selling 737 MAX is not a direct priority, saying "the market is not ready yet."
Boeing, the largest exporter in the United States, was attracted by the turbulent trade war firefighting of Donald Trump, which upended decades of priceless status in the aerospace industry, putting aircraft delivery at risk and strained supply chains.
Boeing is expected to restart new aircraft to Chinese airlines next month after a deal with Beijing to reduce tariffs two weeks ago. But on Friday, President Donald Trump accused China of retrospectively retracing the deal, raising the possibility of a Chinese response.
Olterberg said the relationship between the countries was “dynamic,” adding that he learned not to “overventilate because tomorrow may change.”
"In the end, this will lead to a new trade agreement - which will be OK," he said.
“It’s just managed throughout the uncertainty…so we just want to be flexible and make sure we’re communicating with the government so that when they negotiate these things we don’t (become) unexpected consequences.”
The trade war has reached a critical moment for industry veterans, who described 2025 in April as Boeing’s “turnover year.” Ortberg, former CEO of Boeing supplier Rockwell Collins, faces a daunting task after a series of security and manufacturing crises, is to restore aerospace and defense organizations after a series of security and manufacturing crises.
After just a few weeks of work, Ortberg was forced to raise more than $2.1 billion in new equity to cover Boeing's balance sheet and face a strike from its largest union, which stopped production of 737 Max.
Olterberg said Boeing would “pay less than $500 million for years…500 million for years of imports needed to build the company’s products. Retaliatory tariffs from countries such as China pose a greater threat because they could prompt airlines to refuse delivery.
Still, Alterberg said he believes geopolitical tensions will not delay Boeing's recovery.
He said the company had a strong backlog of orders, adding that for countries that want to imbalance trade with the U.S., aircraft are “very large dollar goods, so they will be a great opportunity to rebalance”.
Alterberg said Boeing's recovery is improving, initially stabilizing the company. Aircraft manufacturers are close to the largest production of 38,737 per month, which is the upper limit set by the Federal Aviation Administration after the mid-term blowout of door panels last year. Boeing must ensure regulatory approval to build narrow aircraft at higher speeds (the goal is 42 per month) to generate cash in the second half of the year.
“Once we do that, I’ve achieved a steady performance on the government portfolio and I’ll claim to win in the stable part of the process,” Olterberg said.
“You can call the corner.”
Ortberg has curbed expectations that Boeing will roll out higher savings at any time to its maximum speed, despite concerns that airlines will struggle to achieve its sustainability goals.
Boeing has no financial position to invest in the new aircraft program, he said. The market is not ready yet, and airline customers are still struggling to get the durability of current engine technology. He said airlines “of course they don’t want to jump into something more risky, more difficult”.
He said the company is ready when we have the resources, the technology and the ability to do so.
"No today, not tomorrow."
Ortberg said separately that he hopes Elon Musk may withdraw from his daily involvement as he has left the Trump administration and he has left the new Air Force. Earlier this year, the billionaire began giving Boeing advice to complete two long-term extended new jets for the U.S. president, prompting Trump to accept a $400 million gift from Qatar's alternative jets.
Alterberg said some of the requirements for the aircraft were nearly impossible, and Musk helped Boeing work with customers to change some of these requirements to more reasonable requirements…still satisfy the aircraft’s mission. ”