Boeing working to accelerate Air Force One replacements delivery, CEO says

Jan 28 - Boeing is working with the Trump administration to speed up delivery of two replacement presidential aircraft, better known as Air Force One, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said in an interview on Tuesday.

The U.S. planemaker has already lost more than $2 billion on the fixed-price program and the planes are not expected to be delivered until later this decade, several years behind schedule.

"Clearly, the president would like the airplane earlier, and so we're working to see what could be done to accomplish that," Ortberg told Reuters.

Ortberg said he is focused on stabilizing the company around its strengths. He said he is looking at non-core segments to sell, likely from Boeing's defense, space and services divisions. Boeing's commercial airplanes business is already streamlined, he said.

For now, that business is focused on stabilizing and ramping up production of its existing airplanes, and he said he does not plan to start work on a new airplane program in the near future.