Just as Boeing began to regain altitude after years of turbulence, an Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad, dealing a potentially catastrophic blow to the American plane maker’s recent progress. With 242 people on board, the aircraft’s sudden descent and fatal crash — just days ahead of the Paris Air Show, the industry’s most important deal-making venue — has sent shockwaves through the aviation world.
For Boeing, timing couldn’t have been worse.
After struggling for years with safety concerns, production delays, and reputational damage stemming from the 737 MAX disasters, Boeing had recently shown signs of recovery. In May alone, Boeing booked gross orders for 303 aircraft — its highest since December 2023 — including a significant wide-body order from Qatar Airways. With the Paris Air Show on the horizon, Boeing was poised to deepen its comeback, challenge Airbus’ dominance, and potentially unlock new deals to solidify its resurgence.
But the crash threatens to unravel that momentum. The aircraft involved — the 787-8 Dreamliner — is not a stranger to scrutiny. From hydraulic leaks and flap malfunctions to recent whistleblower complaints about manufacturing shortcuts, this particular line of aircraft has long raised red flags. If the Ahmedabad crash investigation attributes the tragedy to a production flaw, it could reignite scrutiny that Boeing can ill afford, even if this is the first fatal crash of a 787.
This incident not only casts a pall over Boeing’s Dreamliner line but also reverberates across its vast order book, especially in India. In 2023, Air India placed a massive order for 220 Boeing aircraft, with options for 70 more — including 20 Dreamliners. Low-cost carrier Akasa Air has another 226 Boeing 737 MAX jets on order. In a fast-growing market like India, these orders were seen as a key pillar of Boeing’s future growth strategy.
But now, those deals could be under stress. For Air India, already under pressure to rejuvenate its brand and expand globally, a fatal crash involving a newly ordered jet raises questions about fleet choices. For Akasa, delays in aircraft deliveries due to Boeing’s existing production issues have already left pilots grounded and idle — this crash only compounds the uncertainty.
What’s more, Boeing’s troubles are far from isolated incidents. The memory of the 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 still looms large. Both disasters were traced back to faulty MCAS software, plunging Boeing into a crisis that led to the global grounding of the MAX fleet and a sweeping congressional investigation into a “culture of concealment.” More recently, in 2023, a door plug blew out mid-air on a 737 MAX 9 due to missing bolts — prompting another grounding and audit by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
These repeated safety concerns have exposed Boeing’s corporate fault lines — a culture driven by cost-cutting and shareholder value at the expense of engineering integrity and safety protocols. And while CEO Kelly Ortberg recently claimed that Boeing is stabilizing its 737 production at 38 jets a month, the FAA still tightly caps its manufacturing scale.
Compounding matters, Boeing is already under competitive pressure from Airbus, which has maintained more reliable delivery schedules and continues to win new orders. Indian aviation giant IndiGo, for instance, has over 900 Airbus jets on order, highlighting the preference shift in a market Boeing can’t afford to lose.
As Boeing prepares to take the stage at the Paris Air Show from June 16–22, it does so under a cloud of suspicion and crisis. The event was meant to mark Boeing’s turning point — a showcase of technological innovation, delivery commitments, and renewed trust. Instead, it will likely be dominated by questions about safety, accountability, and whether the American aerospace giant has truly learned from its past.
The crash may be the result of an isolated fault, but perception — especially in aviation — is everything. And for Boeing, perception has often translated directly into shareholder confidence, customer trust, and the willingness of regulators to greenlight expansions.
Boeing may still land new deals at Paris. But the narrative has shifted. What could have been a celebration of comeback is now a crisis-management exercise — one more test of resilience for a company that seems forever on the brink of redemption, yet haunted by its past.
