Boeing is moving its global headquarters to its campus in Arlington, and plans to develop a research and technology center to focus on areas including cyber security, autonomous operations, and software and systems engineering.
“We are excited to build on our foundation here in Northern Virginia. The region makes strategic sense for our global headquarters given its proximity to our customers and stakeholders, and its access to world-class engineering and technical talent,” Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said in the Thursday announcement.
The company will maintain a presence in Chicago, but the press release says that changes made over the past two years have reduced the company’s office space requirements. Calhoun cited a “flexible work strategy” to allow a “reduced footprint” — efficiencies that Calhoun said will allow the company to shift investment to manufacturing, training, and engineering.
The announcement came a week after Boeing’s 2022 quarter one earnings report. During that report, Calhoun said the company should have rejected former President Donald Trump’s proposal to build new aircraft for Air Force One, which has resulted in a loss of $660 million for the company, according to Defense One.
The company has additional problems.
After the report, company shares dropped, and The Motley Fool said, “It’s been a difficult few years for Boeing, with the company plagued first by 737 MAX design flaws that led to two fatal crashes and an 18-month grounding of the jets, and then by the pandemic, which caused airlines to dramatically scale back their growth plans. Boeing shares have lost more than half their value since the start of 2020, and the company’s latest results provide no clear indication that it will be able to quickly regain its footing.”
In the Boeing release, Calhoun specifically thanked Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) and Governor Glenn Youngkin, former CEO at the Carlyle Group. The Associated Press reported that Youngkin and Calhoun had a prior business relationship.
Youngkin thanked Calhoun in his own press release responding to the announcement.
Youngkin said, “Boeing is one of America’s great pioneering businesses and we are thrilled the company has decided to headquarter in Virginia. The decision to call Virginia home shows that the Commonwealth is the premier location for aerospace companies. I look forward to working with Boeing to attract even more talent to Virginia especially given its reputation for engineering excellence.”
In a release, Warner also praised the announcement: “For well over a year, I’ve been making my case to Boeing senior leadership that Virginia would be a great place for its headquarters, and late last year, I was happy to learn that my efforts were successful. As the former Governor of Virginia, I was proud to secure Virginia’s standing as the best state for business and the best-managed state, among other honors, and I’ve been proud to work in my role as Senator to help continue to cultivate the kind of pro-business environment that world-class companies like Boeing need to grow and thrive.”
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Eric Burk is a reporter at The Virginia Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
