The Boeing Company (BA) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, and welcome to The Boeing Company's 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. My name is Grant Dixton, and I'm the company's Corporate Secretary. On behalf of our Board of Directors, management team and employees, thank you for joining us today. Our agenda for today is displayed in the upper right-hand corner of the meeting segment. We look forward to answering your questions during the Q&A session. We have already received a number of questions from you prior to the meeting. You wish to submit a question now, you may do so by using the Ask Question button located in the lower left-hand corner. Questions should be of general interest to shareholders. Please note that we are unable to answer questions related to our first quarter financial results, which will be released on Wednesday, April 28. Polls for each item are open. If you have already submitted your voting form, your shares will be voted accordingly. If you haven't voted yet and wish to vote now, please vote by clicking the blue Vote Here button in the lower right-hand corner of the meeting site. Please vote prior to the end of the presentation of shareholder proposals as the polls will close at that time. I would like to acknowledge Charles Zade, the independent Inspector of Elections; and representatives of Deloitte & Touche, our independent auditor, who are participating in today's meeting. Based on the information provided by our independent Inspector of Elections, a quorum of shareholders is present to conduct our meeting today. With that, it is my pleasure to introduce Boeing's Chairman, Larry Kellner. Larry?

Thank you, Grant. And allow me to add my welcome to each of you, as we join together for our 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders virtually. I hope you all are continuing to keep yourself safe and healthy through this global pandemic. My thoughts are with all those who have experienced loss as a result of COVID-19. I'd like to also thank and recognize all the brave health care professionals and essential workers on the front line as well as the scientists developed safe and effective vaccines. This past year has brought unprecedented challenges to each of us as we face a global pandemic and sweeping societal unrest. I've been greatly inspired by the dedication and resolve of our team, as they supported one another, our customers and our communities. We are navigating this complex landscape by focusing on our core values of safety, quality and integrity, while further strengthening a culture that embraces oversight, transparency and accountability. We're also taking action to foster an inclusive environment in which everyone is respected, valued and is hired for long-term success. Before we begin today, I want to offer my sincere condolences to the loved ones of the passengers and crew aboard Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302. We will never forget these terrible tragedies, and the memory of those lives lost drives us every day to ensure the highest levels of safety and quality in everything we did. Finally, I'd like to take a moment to recognize Art Collins and Susan Schwab. Art and Susan decided to retire after years of exemplary service on our Board. Thank you both for your contributions to the company. At this time, I'd like to acknowledge those who, in addition to myself, have been nominated for election to the Board, each of whom is participating in this meeting: Robert A. Bradway; David L. Calhoun; Lynne M. Doughtie; Admiral Edmund P. Giambastiani, Jr.; Lynn J. Good; Akhil Johri; Steven M. Mollenkopf; Admiral John M. Richardson; and Ronald A. Williams. I'd like to briefly highlight some of the actions the Board of Directors has taken and overseeing efforts to restore stakeholder trust and recommit to our values. To foster the continued safety and quality of Boeing's products, the Aerospace Safety Committee is a permanent committee of the board. As we continue working to return the 737 MAX to service around the world, the Board is focused on listening to all our key stakeholders to ensure we continually identify and implement new opportunities to improve the safety of our airplanes. Following last year's Annual Meeting of Shareholders, the Board amended Boeing's corporate governance principles to acquire an Independent Chairman of the Board. I work closely with the other independent directors and our CEO to ensure effective Board oversight of the company's strategy, operations and culture, anchored by our shared values of safety, quality and integrity. Today, we also announced the Board's decision to extend the company's age 65 standard retirement to age 70 for Boeing's CEO, Dave Calhoun. Under Dave's strong leadership, Boeing has effectively navigated one of the most challenging and complex periods in its long history. His dedication to renewing the company's commitment to safety, quality and transparency has been critical in rebuilding regulator and customer confidence as Boeing returns the 737 MAX to service. And in the face of unprecedented challenges brought on by the global pandemic, he's taken proactive actions to ensure Boeing remains strongly positioned for the recovery in the aviation industry. Given the substantial progress Boeing has made under Dave's leadership as well as the continuity necessary to thrive in our long-cycle industry, the Board has determined that it is in the best interest of the company and its stakeholders to allow the Board and Dave the flexibility for him to continue in his role beyond the company's standard retirement age. I also want to join Dave in recognizing Greg Smith for all that he has done for Boeing over his 30 years with the company and for his leadership and partnership during this exceptionally challenging time for the organization and the industry. On behalf of myself and the rest of the Board, we sincerely thank Greg for all his contributions and wish him the very best in his future endeavors. Let me close my introductory remarks by emphasizing that we're committed to ensuring Boeing has a diverse and engaged Board with a balance of skills and tenure. With a focus on safety, diversity, engineering, aerospace and risk management experience over the last 2 years, we've added 4 new independent directors. The Board is committed to continuing this refreshment process, culture of transparency and accountability, including through regular dialogue with our shareholders. Now I'll move to the formal meeting of business. Our first 3 items on the ballot are the election of directors, an advisory vote on executive compensation and ratification of auditors. The Board has recommended a vote for each of these items. Now it's time to move on to the shareholder proposals. To allow ample time for Q&A, we have asked proponents to please limit their comments to 2 minutes. As a reminder, if you haven't already done so, please vote your shares at this time, as the polls will close immediately following the proposals. We will now connect with Brother Robert Wotypka, the Province of St. Joseph, to hear his statement on proxy Item 4.

Good morning. This is Robert Wotypka. I'm a friar of the Province of St. Joseph of the Capuchin Order, and I'm its Corporate Responsibility agent. On behalf of the Province and our co-filer the Benedictine Sisters of Chicago, I move Item 4 asking our company to provide a report on its state and federal lobbying expenditures, including indirect funding of lobbying through trade association and social welfare groups. After the January 6 Capitol riots, Boeing announced that it would stop its political contributions to lawmakers who rejected the certification of the Electoral College Votes. We believe Boeing needs to go a step further and commit to corporate -- political responsibility by disclosing all dark money payments to third-party groups that use that money to influence policy. Boeing does not issue a comprehensive report of its lobbying to shareholders. Boeing ranks as the ninth largest federal lobbying spender since 1998 with over $300 million spent. Boeing is required to report its lobbying and already has this information so it could easily be provided to shareholders. Our company fails to disclose its payments to trade associations that lobby indirectly on its behalf without specific disclosure or accountability. Boeing is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, which has spent over $1.6 billion on lobbying since 1998. Yet shareholders currently have no way to know how much of its payments to the Chamber are being used for lobbying because Boeing refuses to disclose these payments. Many of the Chamber's lobbying positions contradict Boeing public policy positions. Boeing, it believes in addressing climate change at the Chamber undermine the Paris Climate Accord. Boeing assisted COVID-19 efforts by manufacturing much needed face shields, but the chamber lobbied against the use of the Defense Production Act to produce life-saving equipment. Boeing also needs to disclose payments to 501 C4 social welfare organizations, which can also lobby. The Rule of Law Defense Fund is a social welfare group that helped organize the protest before the Capitol riot and is an arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association. Since 2014, Boeing has contributed at least $175,000 to the Republican Attorneys General Association as our company also made contributions to the Rule of Law Defense Fund. We have no way to know because Boeing fails to disclose its contribution to social welfare groups.

Brother Wotypka, you're at time. I would ask that you wrap up.

Yes, thank you. I assess support to this proposal noting "Boeing does not disclose any other policies or procedures that may have implemented to manage its direct or indirect lobbying activities." Full disclosure of Boeing's lobbying, including all third-party dark money payments will ensure proper oversight of our company's lobbying. We urge shareholders to vote for this proposal. Thank you.

Thank you, Brother Wotypka. The Board recommends a vote against Item 4 for the reasons set forth on Page 66 of the proxy statement. We will now connect with John Chevedden, the representative of David Watt, to hear his statement on proxy Item 5.

Hello. This is John Chevedden. Can you hear me okay?

We can.

Yes. This is Proposal 5, Adopt Proposal that Won our 44% Support in 2020, a shareholder right to act by written consent. As a point of order, I'm asking for 3 minutes, which is a standard for a shareholder meeting. As a further point of order, I am unable to access this meeting online, and there's not even guest access. There was a request that our Board of Directors take the steps necessary to permit written consent by the shareholders entitled to cast the minimum number of votes that would be necessary to authorize an action at a meeting at which all shareholders entitled to vote thereon were present in voting. A shareholder right to act by written consent is a way to make management more accountable to shareholders. This proposal would pave the way for shareholders to have a new avenue to vote in replacement directors for Mr. Kellner and Mr. Giambastiani. If you voted against this proposal, please vote forward in the last few minutes before the polls close. Proxy advisory firm, Glass Lewis recommends shareholders vote against the reelection of Chairman, Larry Kellner, and veteran Director, Edmund Giambastiani, who leads the Board's Safety Committee. Glass Lewis said, we believe we -- they are, in part, responsible for the Board's feelings in regard to risk management. Playing a role in the 2 fatal crashes of the 737 MAX, and the plane is nearly 2 years on the ground. Boeing suffered substantial material loss and reputational damage since the crashes. Taking action by written consent is a means shareholders can use to raise important matters outside the normal annual meeting cycle like the election of a new director. Boeing is too slow in replacing directors associated with the 737 MAX crisis, including Mr. Calhoun. It is also more important to have a new avenue to elect directors since we do not know if Boeing has hit bottom. After 20 months on the ground, the 737 now has 3 electrical grounding problems. After 5 months of no 787 deliveries, there's now risk of sudden decompression, and Boeing is being countersued in regard to Air Force One. A cornerstone of the management resistance to this proposal in 2020 was the Board believes all shareholders should be permitted to discuss and vote on pending shareholder actions. This has been completely blown out of the water with the near extinction of in-person shareholder meetings. For example, AT&T management would not allow shareholders to speak by telephone at the AT&T Online Shareholder Meeting.

Mr. Chevedden, you're past time, would ask you to wrap up, please.

As a point of order, it's 3 minutes as a standard. And Boeing Management seem to be totally unaware that written consent can be structured so all shareholders get notice. The 44% for this proposal in 2020 means it received majority support from the shares that have access to objective proxy voting advice. The management's response to this high-quality support is to spend extra shareholder money to encourage shareholders to vote who do not have access to objective voting advice.

Mr. Chevedden, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

Just 1 more sentence, please; 1 more sentence. Please vote, yes, before the polls close. I adopt this proposal that won our 44% support in 2020 and paved the way for new Boeing directors.

Thank you, Mr. Chevedden.

Thank you, Mr. Chevedden. The Board recommends a vote against Item 5 for the reasons set forth on Pages 67 and 68 of the proxy statement. That concludes the annual meeting business items, and the polls are now closed. I received the preliminary tabulation from Broadridge, and can now report the preliminary voting results. With respect to Item 1, the 10 nominees for election to the Board each received a majority of the votes cast in favor of election. Item 2, 87% of the votes were in favor of the advisory vote on executive compensation. Item 3, 96% of the votes were in favor of the appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP as independent auditor. Item 4, 36% of the votes were in favor of the proposal seeking an additional report on lobbying activities. And Item 5, 35% of the votes were in favor of the proposal on written consent. On the basis of these preliminary results, I declare that each of the 10 director nominees has been duly elected and that shareholders have voted to approve the advisory vote on executive compensation and the appointment of Deloitte & Touche as independent auditor. Finally, shareholders have voted not to approve either of the shareholder proposals. I want to thank our shareholders for their input and the ongoing dialogue we have with them. We will continue to use your feedback to inform our decision-making going forward. The final voting results of today's meeting will be reported on Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 4 business days of today's meeting. That concludes the formal business of the meeting. And I declare the annual meeting adjourned. Please stay with us as we move on to the CEO's report and shareholder Q&A. And now it's my pleasure to introduce Boeing's President and CEO; Dave Calhoun. Dave?

Thank you, Larry, both for the introduction and your Board leadership. And let me add my welcome to all of you that are joining us today. I hope you are all staying safe, healthy, as we continue to navigate this global pandemic. At this time last year, we were just beginning to truly understand its impacts, both personally and professionally. It's been a year like no other. And I could not be more proud of our team's dedication to supporting our customers, the communities in which we operate, their teammates and their families during these challenging times. I've been touched by the incredible stories of compassion and care as our people rush to rally around those in need. In the very early days of the pandemic, even as we temporarily suspended operations at many of our facilities, our teams mobilized to manufacture 3D-printed face shields and used our own fleet to deliver massive quantities of personal protective equipment to the front lines. The reality is that nothing could have prepared us for the sheer magnitude of the global crisis. The loss of life around the globe is beyond comprehension and deeply devastating. My heartfelt sympathies go to everyone who has lost a family member, a friend or a colleague to COVID-19. Alongside the human pain caused by the virus, entire industry's sectors suffered collapsing demand with a global travel ecosystem at the top of the list. 2020 was a devastating year for our airline customers as well as for airports, hotels, taxis, restaurants, conferences, events and all other experiences that revolve around travel and tourism. And while it was tough, we saw the industry come together to support one another like never before. And thankfully, we view 2021 as a critical inflection point. While a full recovery is still likely several years away, we are seeing very encouraging signs of a turnaround. And we are very thankful for the brilliant scientists who have worked tirelessly to create vaccines with remarkable speed. And our first impact assessment going back to May of last year, we never imagined that 50% of the U.S. adult population would be vaccinated a year later. And as governments around the world accelerate vaccine distribution, we begin to take small steps toward returning to daily life as we knew it pre-pandemic. This past year, many of us have adopted new ways of working together. In fact, we're implementing virtual and hybrid work arrangements for many of our teams that will extend even beyond the safe return from telecommuting that the majority of our teammates at our facilities. But while this new dynamic creates opportunities to change what the future of work looks like, I know nothing can replace the value of in-person human connection enabled by air travel. When we're in-person, we forge stronger, more enduring connections, we spark creativity and innovation, and we strengthen trust. And for this reason, air travel has proven resilient time and time again, and we fully expect demand to return to historic long-term growth trends once this pandemic is behind us. And until then, our confident travel initiative in partnership with experts across government, health care industry and academia has demonstrated that when flying passengers are much less likely to contract COVID-19 than in everyday life. Boeing airplanes use high-efficiency filters to remove over 99.9% of viruses and particulates from the air. Similar to those used in hospitals, these filters exchange the volume of cabin air every 2 to 3 minutes. The cabin design and the airflow system coupled with other safeguards incorporated by our airline customers like wearing face coverings and implementing more rigorous cleaning procedures are part of the multilayered safety approach to help protect -- to help our passengers and crew throughout the air travel journey. We're also working with governments and industry associations to help ensure that when people decide to travel, they know what to expect. We encourage that any new protocols use a data-driven and risk-based approach to minimize disease transmission risks between countries. Standardized and secure methods to verify traveler information, whether a negative COVID-19 test result or proof of vaccination, should be a part of any solution to safely expand in international travel. We encourage governments and industry stakeholders to agree on verification protocols that will enable safer air travel while maintaining global connectivity and propelling economic recovery. As we work to navigate through this recovery in domestic and international travel with public health and safety at the forefront, we remain equally focused on our vital defense space and security mission, helping protect our nation and allies around the world. In support of meeting industry and customer needs as we move forward, we launched an internal transformation effort to adapt to the market impact of COVID-19 and position our business to be leaner and sharper and more sustainable for the long term. As part of this transformation, we're assessing all aspects of our infrastructure to make the most efficient use of our factories, our warehouses, our laboratories and our offices while reducing our environmental footprint. We're looking critically at our organizational structure, how we operate to reduce creeping bureaucracy and unnecessary layers. We're reevaluating our portfolio and our investments to ensure that we're prioritizing our spending on core market opportunities, sustainability efforts and key next-generation technologies. We're supporting our suppliers who are managing their production stability in response to our own lower demand. And we're driving operational excellence into every corner of our company so that we can create stability, enhance quality, ensure workplace safety and reduce rework. Our recent 787 delivery pause is a demonstration of this, where we conducted comprehensive production inspections of our 787 airplanes while focusing on driving stability in our production system so that we're positioned for the market recovery. We also made difficult decisions to reduce the size of our workforce in line with our current market realities. As we go through that challenging process, we're not losing sight of our future. We've taken great care to ensure we have the team, the resources and the investments necessary to meet our customer commitments to drive our improvement initiatives and innovate for the future. As we transform, we're staying grounded and grounded in and guided by our core values. We will not forget the lives lost and where we fell short in the tragic Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 accidents. Their memories drive us every day to be a better Boeing. Our highest priority is ensuring the safety, the security and the protection of everyone we serve. We have our leadership team's promise that nothing is more important today and nothing will be more important tomorrow. Delivering on that promise starts with a steadfast commitment to ensuring all of our teammates operate with complete transparency and the highest integrity. Culture begins at the top, and our global leadership team is shifting more time, more attention to getting as close as possible to our day-to-day work. Together, we're fostering a culture of trust, one that encourages and recognizes transparency, accountability and integrity. Boeing is now and will forever be an engineering company. We design, we build and sustain the world's most advanced technology operating from the depths of the ocean to the far reaches of space. And to strengthen this foundational capability we have brought together our 50,000 engineering teammates into a single integrated global community to increase innovation, transparency, collaboration and accountability across all engineering designs and decisions. We also made key leadership appointments. We hired a new Vice President of Software Engineering. We named a new Chief Technology Officer, and we appointed a Chief Aerospace Safety Officer. In parallel, we are advancing our enterprise-wide safety management system that is grounded in timely data analysis and insights to enhance how we manage and improve safety every day. It will be fully embedded in every aspect of how we design, how we build, how we support all of our products and our services. And it will help transparently inform our regulators and our customers every step of the way. And beginning in 2021, product safety, employee safety and quality metrics are incorporated into our primary executive management and employee annual incentive structures. This update further drives our focus on safety and quality across the enterprise at every level of the organization. A key milestone in our journey was the safe return to service of the 737 MAX, beginning with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, the FAA, approval in November of 2020. We continue to work with global regulators and customers to return that airplane to service worldwide. And since returning to operations, Boeing has delivered over 85 737 MAX aircraft to customers around the globe. 21 airlines have returned their airplanes to service and have flown -- safely flown more than 23,000 revenue flights totaling more than 52,000 flight hours. As we've discussed and have previously reported, Boeing identified a potential electrical issue for specific components of the 737 MAX flight deck. Boeing is working with the FAA to finalize the required action and to address the issue and is working closely with both the FAA and our customers on the implementation. We have also resumed delivering our 787s, following our comprehensive reviews to ensure each airplane meets Boeing's highest standards. While this work impacted our near-term financials, it was the right thing to do and is another demonstration of our unrelenting focus on quality and the long-term health of our business. In our Defense business, we've made important progress across a number of programs. For example, we delivered the first F-15EX Eagle II for the U.S. Air Force, ahead of schedule. And we started production on the Air Force's new T-7A Red Hawk advanced trainer. And of course, We were honored to be awarded the 2020 Collier Trophy for aerospace excellence for the X-37B autonomous space plan. We also took the time to ensure the safety and integrity of our key space systems, as we advance toward important milestones in our nation space program. We successfully completed the hot fire testing for NASA's space launch system rocket earlier this year. And we are excited for the next CST-100 Starliner launch, as we prepare for its first mission to the International Space Station. We're proud of the decision that grounded -- that was grounded in our safety-first focus that NASA and our team made to delay the first crewed mission relative to our original schedule. And in services, we adapted quickly to the impacts of COVID-19, as our balanced portfolio of digital offerings and government services provided key stability through the pandemic. For example, Frontier Airlines signed a 10-year digital services agreement for their fleet. And we secured a 6-year support contract with the Royal Australian Air Force for their P-8As. Additionally, as e-commerce drove increasing cargo demand, we worked rapidly with customers to convert freighters to meet their growing cargo fleet needs. These achievements and many others like them reinforce the long-term strategy that underpins our services business and our commitment to meeting our customers' evolving life cycle needs. As we safely deliver for customers today, we're also advancing technology that will define our next chapter. We anticipate that our R&D investments will lead to next-generation aircraft that offer higher performance while being more efficient, easier to maintain, easier to reconfigure. Airplanes that we are delivering to customers today are already 15% to 25% more fuel efficient than their previous generation of airplanes, which helps our customers' economics while supporting important efforts to combat climate change. In addition, we've committed to deliver commercial airplanes that can fly using 100% sustainable fuels by 2030. We expect the demand for carbon reduction to escalate considerably over the next decade, and we plan to help accelerate and lead our industry's focus on supporting bold climate goals. Underscoring the criticality of this work, we appointed a Chief Sustainability Officer in 2020 to help us further advance our approach to sustainability while staying focused on environmental, social and governance priorities. As part of our commitment to sustainable aviation, Boeing has been exploring and developing and partnering in concepts for advanced aircraft that meet specific energy efficiency and environmental and operational goals for 2030 and beyond. One such partnership is with Wisk, a joint venture between Boeing and Kitty Hawk. Wisk is the first company in the U.S. to develop and successfully fly an autonomous, all-electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft and has completed over 1,500 full-scale flights since 2017 with 0 incidents. Last year, Wisk and the New Zealand government announced their partnership to trial Cora, the world's first autonomous air taxi, which will involve Boeing's subsidiary Insitu Pacific. In addition to commercial travel, sustainability in these advanced aircraft, we're making key investments to ensure we're providing our women and men in uniform with the technology advantage to stay 1 step ahead of evolving threats, achieve their critical security missions and return home safe every time. We want future generations of Boeing's stakeholders to conclude that at this moment in our history we listened, we adapted, we stayed focused, we remained tireless in our pursuit of continuous improvement. We have also taken significant steps toward confronting racism and advancing our racial equity and inclusion efforts across Boeing. We've expanded and reformulated the senior leadership team, our Executive Council to ensure we have a far more diverse executive team shaping every aspect of our strategy, our operations and our culture. We've also developed a racial equity and inclusion action plan that raises the bar for progress on key measures of equity, key measures of inclusion for all our people and holds us accountable for clearing that bar. As we were prepared to release our first ever global equity diversity and inclusion report this year, we recognized we still have lots of work ahead to live up to our aspirations. Our work to confront racism and discrimination across our ecosystem is core to our values and will be an enduring effort. More broadly, we take pride in enabling travel experiences that create meaningful connections between people within and across countries and cultures. These in-person connections and conversations among colleagues, friends and family remind us that we are less divided than we might imagine. Premier and space travel to global security and global trade, Boeing plays an essential role in our world. Nearly every time a person or a package arrives in your household or company's doorstep, there's a high likelihood Boeing was involved in making that possible. Likewise, the active duty members of our military in the U.S. and allied nations depend on every day they embark on our technology, our products and our services to help protect their nation as well as their individual security, all while enabling them to achieve their mission on the ground, at sea or in the air and now in space. Through Boeing's purpose to protect, connect, explore our world and beyond, we're committed to understanding meeting and exceeding the expectations of our stakeholders. We faced a reckoning over these last few years, but tough times have brought out the very best in our company and our people. And I'm heartened by the tremendous support we've received from our customers, from our suppliers and our shareowners during this challenging period. I want to take this opportunity to recognize Greg Smith. He's been an integral part of Boeing's ability to navigate the unprecedented challenges over the last year or 2. Greg has decided to retire in July after an enormous contribution to Boeing over his 30-year career with the company. The stewardship of the company's financial position for nearly a decade and his leadership during the severe challenges our industry faced as a result of our global pandemic have been essential to positioning Boeing for a bright future. As part of these efforts, he led the largest bond offering in the company's history, and he launched a comprehensive transformation program that will leave our business stronger and more resilient as we move forward. Greg has also driven Boeing to be a better and more competitive company through his oversight of the enterprise operations and sustainability and strategy efforts. He leaves a legacy of leadership and lasting impact. I'm also grateful for Greg's commitment to support the upcoming transition and for his counsel as we select his successor. Please join me in thanking Greg for his enormous contributions and wishing him all the best in his future endeavors. I want to conclude by saying thank you to our Boeing team. Your passion, your dedication, your resilience is inspiring every day all day. I'm proud to be on your team. And because of you, I'm confident in our shared future. Thank you, and that records -- that concludes my report, Larry.

Thank you, Dave. At this time, we would like to answer your questions. Thank you for the questions you have submitted already. If you wish to submit a question now, you may do so by using the Ask a Question button located in the lower left-hand corner. We will respond to as many as we can. Where there are multiple submissions on the same topic, we will select a representative question that was submitted or will summarize the submitted questions. Please also note that during our first quarter earnings announcement on April 28, we will be discussing our financial performance. As a result, we will be unable to answer specific questions you may have on those topics today. We do encourage you to listen to the earnings call. With that, let's get started.

Thank you, Grant. First question for Dave. In your best estimation, when could dividends be reinstituted and what are the indicators in earnings, revenue and profit you would be looking for before dividends could be reinstituted?

Yes. Thanks, Megan. Well, dividends is a priority and the metric that we all watch, and I think the outside world has shown us to watches is liquidity and cash flow. We anticipate a return to a very positive and healthy cash flow in the near and medium-term future. And our priorities with respect to the use of that cash flow is, number one, to sustain the investments we're making in our company with respect to both production stability and innovation. They are the keepers of our future. Secondly, we will turn toward the balance sheet and reduce debt as quickly as we can. That will be priority #1 for us and get our capital structure back to a pre-pandemic level in a healthy place to prevent any issues in the future from creating any hurt. And then we'll turn our eyes sharply toward dividends. We want to get back to a dividend policy, and we want to get back to the relationship that we've enjoyed with shareowners for many, many, many years. So that is the set of priorities, I can't give you a date, and we need a return in our commercial aviation market to support that. Thank you.

Thank you, Dave. Next question for you. What specifically has Boeing done to revise engineering processes to prevent future problems? It appears problems persist and new problems keep coming up. While safety, quality and transparency are nice, what about engineering improvement and process changes?

Well, we've taken some pretty significant steps. First, let me just comment on our legacy. We do have an incredible legacy with respect to innovation, engineering expertise. And we have a fleet of airplanes that service every country in the world that stands that test every day, all day. So we've taken steps to simply learn from our mistakes, learn from, of course, the accidents that resulted in the MAX grounding. And just stepping up another notch just as our predecessors would have done. We've organized the entire engineering team under 1 leader. That leader reports directly to me. What we get from that is the sharing of best practices or reinforcement of disciplines at every step in the organization, a prioritization of any and all data that has any implication with respect to safety. We've devised and built a safety management system on the back of a former system that was quite robust, but now includes new forms of data; data from ground operations, data from customers, data for regulators, and of course, data broadly across our production system. We will respond to any of the data that suggest that we can build a safer airplane or operate a more dependable airplane with our customers. And when we had an opportunity to make that improvement, we will pause our production, and we will implement those kinds of changes. So these kinds of moments, they will occur. I think we will continue to get better and better and better just as our legacy and our predecessors did over all these years. Safety in aviation relies on that, and I'm confident not only will we continue what had been done in the past, it will be better and better and better. And this intense focus we've put on it now, I think, will keep us in great stead for a long time in the future.

Thank you, Dave. Next question is for Larry. Larry, please describe the racial and gender diversity of the Boeing Board members and what you are doing to be more diverse and inclusive at Boeing?

Thanks, Megan. I'd start off by saying we're committed to ensuring Boeing has a diverse and engaged Board that also has a balance of skills and tenure. With a focus on safety, diversity, engineering, aerospace and risk management expertise, over the last 2 years, we've added 4 new independent directors, 2 of which added to the Board's diversity. And there's a commitment by the Board to diversity both in its membership and its leadership. 40% of the directors elected today are diverse with respect to gender or race and ethnicity. And effective with the reelection today, it shares for our governance, compensation and audit committees are each diverse. Additionally, there is direct Board oversight of our efforts on diversity inclusion, including regularly reviews of workplace diversity metrics, regular reviews of complaints received, corrective actions taken. And we look for things that are inconsistent with our value. That behavior is not tolerated by management, and we make sure we've got the appropriate oversight of that. We recognize the importance of continuing to make progress in this area and are committed to drive stronger diversity and inclusion on the Board [Audio Gap].

Thank you, Larry. Next question, Dave, is for you. How many years will it take for Boeing to return to a stable and strong financial condition?

Well, we've taken an awful lot of actions to lower the breakeven level for our company in light of the reduced demands in the marketplace. But the kind of health we're looking forward to is a complete recovery of the industry. As many know, our defense business end-market has remained strong, robust and stable through this period, and we project that it will continue to do so over the years ahead. Our commercial services business will begin to come back as our airlines begin to put their airplanes back in service, which is happening as we speak. The domestic traffic here in the United States and in other countries around the world is coming back at a fairly rapid rate. And then the demand for services as it relates to those flight lines will continue to grow. So we expect that to come back relatively near term. In addition, narrow-body demand, our 737 MAX family, also is showing signs of a fairly robust recovery, as these domestic operations continue to put flights back into service. And then finally, and the longest pole in the tent, will be the return of our international travel as vaccines get distributed around the world and penetrated into all the countries around the world. And we began to really dampen vaccine concerns and transmissions from country to country. And we developed common and standard protocols for movement between countries that will then forecast a recovery of the wide-body market and international travel. And I'm confident all that will come back, and I'm hopeful it will come back within a couple of years. But I can't predict exactly when it will happen. A lot relies on the distribution of these vaccines around the world.

Thank you, Dave. Next question for you. What is Boeing's long-term plan for reducing CO2 emissions into the atmosphere?

Well, I think we have a fantastic road map. First and foremost, in light of the pandemic and the grounding of so many older airplanes, and it's sort of set a record on that front. And now the -- as we start up the replacement of that fleet with newer airplanes, you get a 25%, 30% bump immediately just with fleet renewal with respect to emissions. Secondly, sustainable aviation fuel is -- we're sort of ready here and now. And by 2030, we believe every airplane that comes off our line will be capable of flying on 100% sustainable aviation fuel. That's alongside of the investments in infrastructure that our country is taking on. We hope it will incent the supply side on sustainable aviation fuel to come forward in a big way. So that's the third one. And yes, we continue to experiment with hydrogen and electric, but likely implementation on that front is at the very small size of the commercial aviation capacity. So anyway, we like what we see ahead of us. We believe it's robust. We have airline partners who are very interested in moving forward on that front. And so I see a pretty robust path for sustainable aviation.

Thank you, Dave. Next question. Is Boeing still committed to the U.S. space program and the personed mission to the Moon and Mars. If so, then what needs to change for Boeing to start winning programs and invest in commercial space opportunities?

Well, first of all, we do win our share. If we're not the largest, we're one of the largest suppliers to NASA and their programs of certainly anybody in the world. So I like our success, right, and we do quite well. As you know, we recently did a test, a hot fire test for our space launch system, which I believe is the most powerful rocket in the world. Not only could it take us to the Moon, it will take us to Mars. So we are invested in every way. We have the Starliner launch to prepare for its first mission to the International Space Station. We're looking forward to completing that by the end of the year. We do an awful lot in advanced space and communication systems for the military, both commercial and scientific uses. So it's a long list of programs. It's robust. It's been steady for us. We're quite confident that we can be a player and want to be a player, and we continue to invest in that way. So yes, I feel good about our space programs and interest, and I probably should comment on our newfound competition. It excites me. The fact that we have sort of more private enterprises lighting up the prospects in space, I think, is good. It raises awareness broadly in the country and support for programs overall. So I'm a big fan of all the new entrants into the market.

Thank you, Dave. Next question for you. Since the 737 MAX grounding and pandemic resulted in a significant increase in debt, what is your plan and strategy for retiring debt to return to more traditional debt levels?

Well, again, it relates to the prior question, and I -- so I don't necessarily want to repeat myself. We need our healthy return of our commercial travel, business travel across the markets around the world, the recovery of those markets, which I'm highly confident in. And when those markets return, and in light of all the actions we've taken with respect to transformation of our company, I'm confident that cash flow will be -- come back and be robust. And as it is, beyond supporting the future needs of our company, our first priority will be to pay down that debt. And I believe that debt will be paid down in a relatively tight timeframe. So that's all I can say. I can't pick a date. We need our markets to come back, and we're confident that they will.

Thank you, Dave. Next question for you. What is Boeing's plans for investing in new airplane program? Will the facilities freed up in Everett by the 747 and 787 production changes be used to build the next generation of airplanes?

Well, just a comment with respect to airplane development, we have a full pipeline. I think, as everyone knows, we are preparing for the certification of our Dash 10, a higher capacity version of our 737 MAX. We have the 777X, which I believe is a one-of-a-kind airplane at the highest end, both in terms of passenger and freight potential. So -- and that program we've targeted to end of '23 as a certification date. So we are working certification programs hard and with focus on all of our global regulators in that process. In addition, we are developing capabilities, both with respect to the engineering modeling that we will deploy and materials and manufacturing processes that we will deploy on the airplane after those. And while we haven't defined that airplane just yet, those capabilities that we are invested in and continuing to perfect will be real differentiators with respect to that next airplane. So we have quite an active pipeline, and we are very engaged even on the future beyond the ones we're working on and then not to mention all of the programs across our defense business that, again, are quite robust. So we've got quite an active development pipeline.

Thank you, Dave. Next question for you. Can you provide more information on the status of the MAX' electrical issues? When will the newly grounded 737s return to service?

Number 1, I -- it's an issue, I think, is well understood by Boeing, by our customer and by the FAA. The job at hand is to rework procedures that need to be perfected and blessed by our regulator are now in everybody's hands, and that's exactly what they're doing. And I don't want to suggest a date because that's not what we do, the FAA does. But I believe it will be a relatively short order. And then we have to schedule the fixes. We'll cut it into our own production quickly, and I think efficiently, and then we will ask and work with our customers to schedule those work efforts out there in the field. Those efforts will be measured in days, not weeks or months. So anyway, I'm confident that the process is good. I might just add that this issue came about because of all the data that we gleaned from the MAX return to service. It was highlighted in a, believe it or not, an airplane on the ground that was having a difficult time getting started. Anyway, we immediately took that, did all the investigator work you do and found this issue brought to the attention of the FAA and made the fix. So this is how the process is supposed to work. I always apologize to our customers for good reason. I don't like interrupting anything with respect to their operations. But they understand and they've been very constructive in working with us on this resolution.

Thank you, Dave. Larry, next question is for you. Would the Boeing company consider virtual access to future annual meetings to allow access to those shareholders who cannot attend in-person?

Yes. I think what we've seen over last year and then this year's attendance is a much stronger attendance where we're virtually and allows for a broader breadth of questions as well. So we will definitely look at virtual shareholder meetings going forward post-pandemic.

Thank you so much, Larry. Next question is also for you. The topic of stakeholder capitalism as an alternative to shareholder capitalism has received considerable attention recently. Could you discuss the Board's perspective on the concept of stakeholder capitalism and what principles the Board would use to balance the interest of various stakeholders, as it develops and implements the company's long-term business strategy.

Yes. As we think about long-term strategy as a Board, we're a long-cycle business and where that ends is that our shareholders and our stakeholders end up being aligned. What's good for our communities, what's good for our suppliers, what's good for our customers, what's good for our employees on a long-term basis, it's also good for our shareholders. So we view those 2 very much in sync and think they work together. And what's good for our stakeholders is good for our shareholders on a long-term basis.

Thank you, Larry. Dave, with companies like Google, Amazon, Apple and others, is there a shortage of qualified engineers to work for a company like Boeing?

Well, let me comment. There's a shortage when you aggravate all of our demand. There's a shortage, and all of us are working feverishly to promote STEM and other educational alternatives to feed that system. Boeing competes very well against the names that you mentioned, mostly in light of our mission. It's exciting for young people to know that our work results in going to space or going to Mars. Our work is an exciting endeavor. So we don't worry about our ability to compete against those. But I will acknowledge that all of us could use more qualified people in the technology regime, data analytics, specifically, but broadly across the engineering spectrum.

Thank you, Dave. We have time for 1 more question. Larry, this one is for you. How many of the directors on the Board are pilots, engineers or mechanics who understand all the elements in making a good, user-friendly and safe product?

Thanks, Megan. We're committed to ensuring that Boeing has a diverse and engaged Board with the right balance of skills and tenure. If you look here in the last 2 years with a focus on safety, diversity, engineering, aerospace and risk management expertise, we've added 4 new directors -- 4 new independent directors. John Richardson and Steve Mollenkopf both have masters in engineering. Akhil Johri was the senior executive at a major aerospace supplier. And Lynne Doughtie brings expertise in risk management. Also 2 of these 4 additions, as I mentioned earlier, bring diversity to the Board. For the remainder of the Board Ed Giambastiani, Dave and myself, have significant aerospace expertise. And Lynn Good, Ron Williams and Bob Bradway add valuable outside perspectives from nuclear, health care, pharmaceutical industries, which allows the board to have a broader view of safety, manufacturing and operating issues and risk. For further background, if you look in the proxy, we've got a table on Page 8 that summarizes the skill sets of our directors. It's important though as well as we move forward, we'll continue to diverse Board candidates that bring additional aerospace and engineering expertise to our Board. With that, that concludes our question-and-answer period. Thank you very much for attending our 2021 annual meeting and for your continued support of The Boeing Company. We hope you all stay healthy and safe during these challenging times. Thank you very much.