Randy Tinseth, vice president of marketing for Boeing commercial airplanes, speaks to Reuters during an interview at the Singapore Airshow February 2, 2010. — Reuters pic
Tinseth, who recently told colleagues he plans to retire after 38 years at Boeing, said he had plenty of such stories about rollercoaster bets in an often-volatile industry. “In two days, you can get a sense of what is going on more than you ever could. This show is really about the virus without question, and it is about the MAX for us,” he said, referring to the 11-month-old grounding of Boeing’s best-selling model.
Tinseth declined to be drawn into a discussion on the mid-sized airliner situation. “The dynamic has changed. I’ll leave it at that,” he said. “I think we have got a huge advantage, but it’s a good airplane, unless you are under 5 feet tall and can’t reach the bins,” Tinseth joked. Airbus says its A350 overhead bins are among the largest.“There are innovations that I don’t know yet, but we will find a way as an industry to innovate to address that problem,” he said.