Boeing CEO Muilenburg set to face shareholders at AGM as 737 Max woes continue

Boeing chief executive Dennis Muilenburg is set to face shareholders later for the first time since the second of two fatal crashes involving the firm’s 737 Max plane which killed a total of 346 people.

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Muilenburg will hold a press conference after Boeing’s annual shareholder meeting (AGM), as he grapples with the biggest crisis of his four year tenure which has seen the 737 Max model grounded across the globe, costing the firm billions of dollars.

He will try to boost investor confidence in the future of the world’s biggest plane maker, after a torrid two months which have seen Boeing shares fall nearly 10 per cent, losing tens of billions of dollars from its market cap.

The two biggest shareholder advisory firms in the world, ISS and Glass Lewis, have proposed voting against reinstating Muilenburg as chairman on top of his existing chief executive duties. Muilenburg rebuffed the calls on last week’s first-quarter earnings call.

The firm is under considerable pressure to deliver a software fix and new pilot training to address the issue which likely caused the crash – faulty sensors on its anti-stall system. The US aviation regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration, could clear the plane to fly as soon as late next month, but Boeing has yet to formally submit the new software and training for review.

Some pilots have warned, however, that draft proposals to update training procedures do not go far enough to address their concerns.

Last week, Boeing revealed the extent of the financial damage from grounding its flagship plane model across the globe as at least $1bn so far. The plane maker said in its first-quarter results that it had suspended its 2019 forecasts as it scrambles to get the 737 Max model back in the air.

The company added changes to the production process of the model would cost another $1bn in the coming years. The fallout of the second deadly crash saw Boeing cut production of the jets to 42 aircraft per month, down from 52.