Delta CEO comments on Boeing's future amid controversies

A Boeing (BA) whistleblower's claims about the assembly of the 787 Dreamliner jet have reportedly sparked a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) probe into the aviation manufacturer.

When asked about Boeing's current state of affairs by Yahoo Finance's Brad Smith, Delta Air Lines (DAL) CEO Ed Bastian said he has "confidence in the company" as it rectifies the quality of its production process and begins its search for future leadership.

The Morning Brief discusses the path forward for Boeing and its position as a premier jetline manufacturer.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Morning Brief.

Editor's note: This article was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

Video Transcript

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- Let's take a look at some trending tickers. More trouble for Boeing after an engineer for the airplane maker filed a complaint with the FAA claiming shortcuts were taken when assembling its 787 Dreamliner Jets. I spoke with Delta Airlines CEO Ed Bastian regarding any concerns around Boeing, and here's what he had to say.

ED BASTIAN: I have confidence in the company. A strong company, it's an important company. And I still have confidence in the company. I think we all know it's going to take some time before they get the overall level of quality and production where it needs to be. And the board there decided to make a change in the leadership.

And I have a lot of confidence in Steve Mollenkopf who is the new chair. I know Steve personally. I think he's a great choice for the chair and I'm confident, he's going to make a good, long-term leader for that organization, not just the CEO but the team as a whole.

- And you really do hear many of the airline executives, Ed included, reiterating how important this company in Boeing is to the large plane manufacturing in the world here as 90% of the large plane orders, according to data from teal group, of course, comes in for Boeing and Airbus here. Those two account for 90% of those large plane manufacturing.

So Boeing getting this right and the companies continuing in the airlines continuing to show confidence in them at the same time where they're looking for answers as well here. They're trying to make sure that a lot of the issues that have really impacted even their own orders get rectified in the very near term before it further impacts route schedules as well.

- Yeah right now, they still have the confidence of the airline leaders, but I think there are lots of questions. And even just take a look at the Street's reaction, take a look at investors reaction, they're not convinced that Boeing's troubles are over. When you take a look at it's falling another 9/10 of a percent today. But when you take a look at a longer-term chart, that year to date chart really shows the pressure that shares have been under ever since the start. Most recently for Boeing's troubles.

And you're looking at year-to-date losses of just over 30%. One of the worst performers that we've seen this year among some of the components that we watch here. So it does beg the question of what is going to take in order to convince investors to get back on board when the worst performers within the Dow this year. So we're still seeing, when you get a report like this or this whistleblower report, it also brings up, obviously, more questions about what the future could look like here for Boeing.

And then not even to bring up the leadership changes that we're going to see. A number of increased regulatory action that we will likely see oversight that could pressure the stock, at least in the near-term.

I was looking at the extended hours trading as of right now. We could be looking at a new 52-week low today for Boeing if we dip below 176.25 here. So we're taking a look at that already here in premarket trading.