John B. Craig

These are tough times for Boeing, though mainly on the $25 billion a year civil aviation side whose orders have suffered from SARS, the war in Iraq and competition from Airbus. Total group staff numbers have shrunk from 79,000 to 39,000 in the past few years.

'Phil Condit thought he might become a negative rather than a positive for Boeing and so he decided to go,' comments Mr. Craig on the departure of the company's long-serving chief executive officer on December 1. 'He did not want to become a liability.'

New top man Harry Stonecipher is a McDonnell Douglas veteran, recalled from retirement at the age of 67 to run Boeing which bought McDonnell Douglas in the mid-90s. Is he just an interim appointment?

'Harry never did anything in his life on an interim basis,' says Mr. Craig who joined Boeing in June as part of a new team of 20 senior Boeing permanent representatives. He is now based in Dubai with a roving brief to cover the Middle East.

'We have been hired to provide immediate access for clients to the top of the company,' explains Mr. Craig, a former US diplomat, fluent Arab speaker and ambassador to Oman from 1998-2001. He was also a special advisor to President George Bush after 9/11.

'Only five of the 20 representatives are American. We realize that the image of our business has suffered because of the lack of a permanent presence. This is the Boeing response.

'Our aim is to raise the profile of the Boeing company, and to be a good corporate citizen with sponsorships such as the Dubai World Cup event. We want to encourage a positive attitude towards Boeing.'

Mr. Craig characterizes the Middle East as a 'very deep and mature aviation market'. Boeing is deeply involved in the defense sector, particularly after its acquisitions of recent years, and upgrades to the F16 and Apache helicopters are a mainstay of the business.

'Integrated defense systems is a $27 billion a year business for Boeing. It was Phil Condit's genius to see as far back as 1995 that the civil aviation business was going to dive and to expand the company with a series of brilliant acquisitions.

'What we have now in Boeing is the next generation of technology by combining all these resources. For example, for the US military we have developed a battlefield management system which allows commanders to see where the enemy is on a map of the battlefield. It's a complete system from satellite to artificial intelligence to a map.'

Clearly the Dubai Airshow 2003 may mark the bottom of the cycle for Boeing. The top management has changed; orders should begin to pick up next year as the US economy expands; and in the Middle East Mr. Craig is an articulate new spokesman for the company.