Spirit AeroSystems deal aims to restore aviation safety

Boeing agreed Sunday to acquire Spirit AeroSystems for more than $4 billion, two people familiar with the matter said, ending months of talks on a deal the U.S. planemaker hopes will help ease a growing safety crisis. Boeing will pay $37.25 per share for Spirit Aero in an all-stock deal, two of the people said. The boards of Boeing and Spirit met Sunday and agreed on the terms, and a formal announcement is likely early Monday morning, they said.

The acquisition values ​​Spirit at about $4.7 billion, one of the sources said. The deal, which is subject to regulatory approvals, would break up Spirit and send some of the Kansas-based supplier’s assets to French planemaker Airbus.

Airbus, Spirit and Boeing declined to comment. Boeing is trying to move past a year of trouble caused by the Jan. 5 mid-air explosion of a door plug on the new 737 MAX 9 plane that exposed countless safety and quality problems. These problems led to a significant slowdown in Boeing’s production, which affected the entire global commercial aviation industry.

Spirit, the maker of the door cap, was spun off from Boeing in 2005 in a series of moves that critics said were emblematic of a focus on cost cutting over quality. Boeing made the decision to buy Spirit after the Jan. 5 incident on a plane operated by Alaska Airlines as part of an effort to reform safety problems and strengthen its production line.

Terms of Spirit’s parallel agreement to sell its European operations to Airbus weren’t immediately clear. People familiar said the two deals were expected to be announced simultaneously early Monday morning. The two moves amount to a transatlantic breakup of the world’s largest independent aircraft-structures maker, which since being spun off from Boeing nearly two decades ago has expanded into making parts for Airbus and others.

PRODUCTION LIMITS The Federal Aviation Administration imposed a production cap on Boeing’s best-selling MAX planes after the January incident, and U.S. Department of Justice officials are threatening criminal prosecution if they find the planemaker breached the contract after the tragic MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019.

Buying Spirit Aero won’t immediately solve Boeing’s problems. The iconic American company has been losing market share to Airbus for years and is still grappling with the fallout from two crashes that killed nearly 350 people and forced the grounding of the 737 MAX. Those crashes led to the appointment of current CEO Dave Calhoun, who was brought in to fix the manufacturer’s problems but will leave at the end of this year with the company facing increased regulatory scrutiny and a tarnished reputation.

On June 18, US senators sharply criticized Calhoun

for the aircraft manufacturer’s safety issues and repeatedly questioned him about his remuneration. Some airlines have vented their frustration with Boeing publicly and privately over delivery delays and the company’s ongoing problems. Boeing recently filed a comprehensive plan with the FAA to address “systemic quality control issues” at the company.

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