SEATTLE – The Boeing Co., facing another year of being beaten in jetliner deliveries by archrival Airbus, said Friday it was replacing its top commercial jet salesman with an executive who has led the company’s efforts to sell high-speed Internet services to airlines.
Toby Bright, executive vice president for commercial airplane sales, who was ousted in the move, “will be accepting new responsibilities in Boeing Commercial Airplanes,” the company said in a statement.
He will be replaced by Scott Carson, who has been head of Connexion by Boeing, the company’s in-flight Internet service venture, since 2000. Before that, he was the chief financial officer for Boeing’s commercial airplanes division.
Laurette Koellner, a Boeing executive vice president, will replace Carson as head of Connexion.
The announcement was made after the close of markets. Boeing shares finished 40 cents higher at $55.26 on the New York Stock Exchange, just off its 52-week high.
Boeing has been losing ground to Europe’s Airbus SAS, which plans to deliver between 315 and 320 airplanes this year and to top that in 2005. Boeing plans to deliver 285 airplanes this year and between 315 and 320 in 2005.
In a statement, Boeing chief executive Harry Stonecipher said the shake-up would “strengthen and improve our global sales effectiveness – and that’s one of our highest priorities.”
But some questioned whether Boeing’s sales force is to blame for its inability to compete as effectively as Airbus.
Analyst Paul Nisbet with JSA Research said Boeing seems unable to compete with Airbus on price because top executives are unwilling to let the Chicago-based company make money-losing deals just to gain market share. While Nisbet thinks that’s the right decision, he said it nevertheless leaves Boeing’s sales force somewhat hamstrung.
Although Boeing has earned accolades for launching its new fuel-efficient, midsized 7E7, aviation consultant Scott Hamilton said that came only after years in which Boeing tried to persuade customers – often unsuccessfully – to buy its single-aisle 757 and wide-body 767 airplanes, which were developed in the early 1980s.
“The sales force can only sell the products they have to sell, and as a result of senior management and board of directors decisions going back more than a decade, the Boeing sales force has had tired product lines to sell,” Hamilton said.
In a major blow to Boeing, Airbus also has recently persuaded some discount airlines to choose its A320 over Boeing’s popular single-aisle 737.
One reason for that may be price. Also, Hamilton says airlines may be thinking the 737 is growing outdated. To truly compete with Airbus for shorter-range aircraft, Hamilton said Boeing needs to discontinue the 737 and build a new single-aisle plane based on 7E7 technology.
Boeing is rapidly approaching its self-imposed deadline to sell 200 of its new 7E7 airplanes by the end of the year. Airbus also may be throwing a wrench in those plans by saying it is close to launching a rival model.
“We remain hopeful that we will get” the 200 7E7 orders, Boeing spokesman Todd Blecher said Friday. But the company also has started downplaying the significance of reaching the goal.
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