Business

In the first in-depth interview given by a retail CEO about organized theft, Ulta Beauty CEO Dave Kimbell said e-commerce sites are contributing to organized retail crime.
In response to a CNBC investigation about a network of professional thieves that police say stole goods from Ulta stores across the country and sold them on Amazon, Kimbell said more can be done to deter the sale of stolen goods.
“We shouldn’t have an environment where it’s possible to steal from one retailer and [have it] end up on any other platform, any other large-scale, mainstream platform,” Kimbell said, without mentioning Amazon.

Read CNBC’s full investigation into the alleged organized theft groups that police say are stealing and reselling items from retailers including Ulta Beauty, T.J. Maxx and Walgreens.
Faced with sophisticated organized retail crime rings that investigators say have targeted his company, Ulta Beauty CEO Dave Kimbell is laying some blame on e-commerce sites.

In the first in-depth interview given by a retail CEO about organized theft, Kimbell responded to a monthslong CNBC investigation that showed how police broke up what they say is a professional network of thieves who used Amazon to resell millions in cosmetics stolen from Ulta stores and other retailers across the U.S.
While Kimbell wouldn’t comment directly about Amazon, he said online marketplaces are “part of the problem.”
“[Online marketplaces] give more scale and more opportunity for people to liquidate this product,” Kimbell told CNBC in an on-camera interview. “You used to have to sell stolen goods at flea markets or out of the trunk of your car, or maybe just locally. Now, you have more sophisticated tools to have a broader reach across the country or even internationally.”
As part of an investigation into retail crime rings and the actions companies and law enforcement are taking to crack down on the problem, CNBC followed a case that involved Michelle Mack, a San Diego woman whom prosecutors accuse of using her Amazon digital storefront to resell goods stolen from stores.
The 53-year-old mother of three and her husband, Kenneth Mack, were charged with conspiracy to commit organized retail theft, grand theft and receipt of stolen property in connection with the alleged crime ring. During a raid at her California mansion in December, California Highway Patrol and Homeland Security agents say they found $387,000 in suspected stolen goods, most of which had come from Ulta. Investigators say her crime ring brought in millions of dollars over more than a decade. Both Michelle Mack and Kenneth Mack have pleaded not guilty. 

For Kimbell, the scale of such an operation wasn’t surprising.
“Unfortunately, I’m not that shocked because we’ve seen it in other parts of the country,” said Kimbell. “The magnitude of this one is significant. But this is what’s happening, and this is the environment in which we’re operating.”

Ulta Beauty CEO Dave Kimbell said online marketplaces need to do more to prevent the sale of stolen goods.

Kimbell said he doesn’t think the onus is on consumers to evaluate whether a product they are buying from an online marketplace is stolen. Many shoppers may not even consider that the products could be stolen from one retailer and sold by another, he said, adding it’s a largely online phenomenon.
“That doesn’t happen in brick-and-mortar [stores]. You wouldn’t come into a retailer and see somebody [at] a table in front [selling] stolen goods,” Kimbell said. “We shouldn’t have an environment where it’s possible to steal from one retailer and [have it] end up on any other platform, any other large-scale, mainstream platform.”
Anyone who sells products online “should be committed to ensuring that nothing that they sell is stolen goods,” Kimbell said.
“I can tell you with 100% certainty, nothing that we sell at Ulta.com or any online platform is product that’s been stolen from another retailer,” he said. “There are tools, there’s data, there’s analytics, there’s capabilities that we collectively have that we could try to take even more action.”
Amazon declined CNBC’s request for an interview but said in a statement the e-commerce giant has “zero tolerance for the sale of stolen goods.” An Amazon spokesperson said the company invests $1 billion annually and employs “thousands of people” to combat fraud, including detection and prevention tools.
The spokesperson said Amazon works with law enforcement and other retailers to “stop bad actors and hold them accountable.”
In the Mack case, Amazon said it did not receive signals that would have indicated the seller was offloading stolen goods. Mack’s page was taken down after her arrest.

How bad is organized retail crime?

It’s unclear exactly how big of a problem organized retail crime is. The National Retail Federation and the Retail Industry Leaders Association say not every instance is reported, tracked or tallied.
According to the most recent NRF survey on shrink — the industry term for lost inventory from damage, theft or other sources — the total value of goods stolen in external theft instances totaled $40.5 billion in 2022, representing 36.15% of total shrink, compared with 37% in 2021.
Ulta Beauty is one of a number of retailers that have started to discuss retail crime as a problem but haven’t quantified how it is affecting their businesses. Ulta Beauty Chief Financial Officer Scott Settersten and Chief Operating Officer Kecia Steelman have discussed theft or organized retail crime specifically on earnings calls or at investor conferences. 
Ulta Beauty said it aims to have all of its fragrances locked up in stores in the first few months of this year. Fragrance has been one of the hardest-hit categories for the retailer because of its high value and the relative ease of reselling it, Kimbell said.
The CEO didn’t quantify the rise of organized retail crime his company has seen, but he said “it has definitely gotten worse.”
“Retail crime has been part of the retail industry forever … but what we’ve seen over the last few years, really the last couple of years, is a significant elevation,” he said.
Retail executives are increasingly worried about a rise in violence associated with theft, according to the NRF survey, with 81% reporting an increase in violence and 28% reporting that their company has closed a specific location because of crime. Ulta said it has not yet closed a store because of crime.
Kimbell said he is particularly concerned about how the rise in crime affects Ulta’s 50,000 employees across 1,400 stores around the country.
“These situations … they’re not fun … they’re threatening; they’re intimidating,” Kimbell said. “They can be traumatic.”
– Additional reporting by Ali McCadden. More

YOU MAY think that if you splashed out $100,000 for a vehicle you would usually take delivery of something pretty flash—a Porsche, say. In fact, many buyers of wheels at that price care less about the badge on the bonnet and more about how much the thing costs to drive and how much weight it can carry. For this is also the price of a large lorry. These commercial vehicles, together with smaller trucks and vans, keep supply chains humming and deliveries moving.They also make lots of money for their makers. In 2023 vans accounted for a third of revenues of €190bn ($207bn) at Stellantis (whose largest shareholder, Exor, part-owns The Economist’s parent company). Ford Pro, the American car giant’s commercial-vehicle arm, made a net profit of $7.2bn on sales of 1.4m units, compared with $7.5bn at Ford Blue, its car division, which sold twice as many vehicles. Daimler Truck, the world’s biggest manufacturer of medium-sized and large lorries, earned revenues of €56bn last year. Lorries made by Volvo and Daimler rake in margins typical of an upmarket carmaker.Given both the already high upfront cost and the attention buyers pay to operating expenses, you might expect commercial vehicles to be ripe for electrification—not least because they are also disproportionately heavy emitters, with lorries and buses contributing over a quarter of the carbon spewed by road transport in the EU. Business buyers value this total cost of ownership more than individual motorists, who may be willing to pay a premium to salve their green conscience. The problem is that for many commercial vehicles, the calculation continues to favour petrol and diesel. Can that change?China, where volts have made the biggest impact, accounted for 85% of global sales of electric heavy-duty lorries (the largest sort) in 2023. Yet that corresponds to just one in 25 such vehicles sold in China; by comparison, one in three new passenger cars there is electric. In Europe the figure is one in 70, and one in seven for passenger cars. When an eu ban on sale of cars with internal combustion engines comes into force in 2035 only three-quarters of lorries could be electric, according to bcg, a consultancy. idTechEx, another consultancy, forecasts that zero-emission lorries will make up 13% of sales in America by 2030, far short of President Joe Biden’s goal for 50% of car sales.Over the next six years electrification is likeliest for smaller vehicles operating over shorter distances, such as last-mile delivery services, reckons Alexander Krug of Arthur D. Little, one more consulting firm. The economics of running smaller electric vans can be compelling. Uwe Hochgeschurtz of Stellantis notes that going electric can both save money and comply with increasingly strict emissions rules in cities. Electric vans that travel relatively short distances over the course of a day but cover lots of miles over a year could have a 10% cost advantage over conventional ones, calculate consultants at McKinsey. Lars Stenqvist, technology chief at Volvo, sees no reason why all cities in Europe should not run electric bin lorries.Batteries can be smaller and vehicles can be recharged overnight at depots. Even where they are not yet cheaper, going electric allows large delivery companies such as FedEx and DHL to help merchants they cater to meet carbon-cutting commitments which many shoppers demand. FedEx has set a target for half its parcel-delivery vehicles to be electric by 2025. dhl wants the same for 60% of its last-mile vehicles by 2030. Amazon has 10,000 electric vans on American roads and hopes to have 100,000 by 2030.The economics are a heavier lift for lorries. Optimists point out that plenty of routes are well within current vehicles’ range. America’s Department of Transportation reckons that the distance travelled by three-quarters of all goods ferried by road in the country in 2023 was less than 250 miles (400km). Volvo calculates that 45% of goods in Europe today travel less than 300km. Marco Liccardo, Mr Stenqvist’s opposite number at Iveco, an Italian commercial-vehicle firm (also part-owned by Exor), expects electric cars to reach total-cost parity with conventional lorries in 200km runs between logistics hubs.Regulators are trying to speed things along. In America, the Environmental Protection Agency has proposed requiring that half of sales of new buses and a quarter of new heavy-duty lorries be all-electric by 2032. Buyers of such clean vehicles can also count on tax credits. The eu is requiring cuts of 15% to the average carbon-dioxide emissions of carmakers’ fleets by 2025 from 2019 levels, and of 43% by 2030.So far this is having little effect. Only a few electric models are on sale. The large and bulky batteries they require drive up the purchase cost. Electric trucks set businesses back between two and three times as much as a diesel one does, and offer limited range. The largest trucks, of which 2m or so were sold worldwide in 2023, are also the most likely to stick with internal combustion. Volvo shifted 6,000 electric ones last year, just 2% of its total.And even if the cost disadvantage can be overcome, that leaves the problem of infrastructure. Van fleets can recharge overnight at depots. Bigger lorries on shorter-haul routes can be charged at either end, while they are loaded or unloaded or drivers rest. Longer-haul routes will require public charging stations. But dedicated fast chargers for lorries require far more power than for cars, plus lots of parking space. The fastest chargers that can top up cars in a few minutes would take around 90 minutes for a lorry. A handful of “megawatt chargers”, which are ten times faster, are already in operation in Germany and the Netherlands.But a Europe-wide charging network would require investments of as much as €36bn, estimates PwC, a consultancy. One to refuel lorries with hydrogen—a zero-emissions alternative to batteries—would not come cheap either. Cash-strapped governments are unlikely to want to foot the bill. On March 12th the Biden administration unveiled a strategy to speed up the building of public infrastructure for freight lorries. But even if it is successful, it will not be built overnight.Another problem stems from the carmakers themselves. Moving more swiftly to an all-electric world would “write off seven or eight years of profit”, says Robert Falck, boss of Einride, a Swedish commercial-vehicle startup. Whereas legacy carmakers were forced into electrification first by Tesla and more recently by cheap but decent Chinese models, the lorry business has so far faced less disruption.Tesla itself has moved more slowly. It unveiled the Semi, its electric lorry, in 2017 but started shipping it only in late 2022. Tesla says it has a fleet of around 100 on the road, many of which are operated by PepsiCo. The carmaker’s plans to produce 50,000 a year by the end of 2024 look wildly optimistic. Nikola, which launched in 2014 and to great fanfare struck a joint venture with Iveco in 2019 to develop zero-emission lorries, has also struggled. Its founder was jailed in 2023 for misleading investors. Since then its market value has crashed from nearly $29bn in 2020 to around $900m today. Last year it sold just 35 hydrogen-fuel-cell vehicles. It has also paused production of its battery lorries. Its joint venture with Iveco was disbanded in 2023.Startups eyeing last-mile delivery vans have had similarly mixed fortunes. As for the upstart EV-makers taking on Tesla, ramping up production and raising capital is proving tough. Lordstown, an American firm, and Volta Trucks of Sweden, have gone bust. Arrival, a British one, is teetering on the brink, despite an order of 10,000 vans from ups, another parcel-delivery giant. Rivian, an American firm which in 2019 signed a deal for 100,000 vans with Amazon, and Canoo, a rival which counts Walmart among its customers, are struggling to make vehicles at scale and are burning cash. Other manufacturers, such as REE and Tevva, which make battery-powered vans and lorries in Britain, or Harbinger and Workhorse, both of which make medium-sized trucks in America, are hopeful but have even further to go.The threat to legacy lorrymakers from China is also far less acute than in the market for passenger cars. As with electric cars, China has stolen a march on everyone else in commercial EVs, thanks to its world-beating battery industry (and strong government incentives). Maxus, a British brand acquired by saic, a Chinese carmaker, is selling vans across Europe; one model was Britain’s best-selling electric van in December. byd, China’s biggest electric-car maker, has exported a handful of large battery-powered lorries to America.But Chinese lorrymakers will find it harder to conquer foreign markets even than Chinese carmakers, which are viewed with suspicion by many Western governments. Europe is more protected against Chinese lorries. One car executive calls its strict regulations for lorries “the equivalent of tariffs”, adding that this makes Chinese commercial EVs uncompetitive on the continent.Mr Falck hopes to shake up the market with a new business model, which he calls “Uber for freight”. Volvo and Iveco are trying to increase the appeal of their electric lorries with a financing deal that sidesteps high upfront costs in favour of customers paying by use. Einride goes a step further, owning its own fleet of vehicles (built by partners and financed by investors) and providing the lugging of goods as a service. The company already operates fleets for Maersk, a shipping giant, ab InBev, a brewer, and Lidl, a supermarket chain. That is an interesting path to electric freight. But it, too, looks long and winding. ■ More

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Frontier said its new UpFront Plus option will include an open middle seat in the first two rows of the plane.
The additional cost for the seat will start at $49.
Fellow budget airline Spirit Airlines offers the “Big Front Seat” at the front of the plane for an upcharge.

A Frontier Airlines plane lands at the McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020. 
Elizabeth Page Brumley | Tribune News Service | Getty Images

First class on Frontier? Not quite. But the budget airline on Tuesday launched a new add-on to get more room at the front of its tightly packed planes — with no middle seat neighbor.
On flights starting April 10, Frontier will offer UpFront Plus in the first two rows of its Airbus planes, where it will block the sale of the middle seat. Those seats will also include four to five inches more legroom compared with most of the seats on the planes, an airline spokeswoman said.

Prices start at $49, for bookings made by March 20 for flights between April 10 and April 30, but the spokeswoman said the seat option “is not intended as a limited time offer.”
Airlines from budget carriers like Spirit and Frontier to behemoths like Delta, United and American have looked for ways to segment their cabins, sell higher-priced products to customers, or add fees for advance seat selection.
Fellow budget airline Spirit offers the “Big Front Seat” in its Airbus cabins. The new Frontier option isn’t a new seat, but is instead spaced differently than most of the plane.
Fees are especially key for budget airlines, which charge more for everything from seat selection to carry-on bags on top of the base fare. Frontier brought in $42 per passenger on average last year from airfare, down 22% from 2022, while nonfare revenue rose 1% to almost $74 per passenger.

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Boeing handed over 27 planes in February, while Airbus handed over 49.
Boeing’s 737 Max quality control crisis has deepened since a door plug blew out midflight from an Alaska Airlines Max 9 in January.

A Boeing 737 Max aircraft during a display at the Farnborough International Airshow, in Farnborough, Britain, July 20, 2022.
Peter Cziborra | Reuters

Boeing handed over 27 airplanes to its customers last month as it continues to struggle with quality control problems and production delays that have frustrated the CEOs of some of its biggest airline customers.
So far this year, Boeing has handed over 54 planes, while Airbus has widened its lead over its main rival, delivering 79 planes in the first two months of 2024.

Delayed Boeing planes have been difficult for airline leaders. Southwest Airlines, which flies only Boeing 737s, on Tuesday said that it would trim capacity plans this year because of fewer Boeing Max deliveries and that it will have to reevaluate its 2024 financial estimates. United Airlines earlier this year said it was taking the 737 Max 10, which hasn’t yet been certified, out of its fleet plans.
Boeing’s February deliveries included 17 Max jetliners and seven wide-body 787-9 Dreamliners. Deliveries are important to manufacturers because customers pay the bulk of the aircraft’s price when they receive the plane.
Boeing logged 15 gross orders for new planes in February, while Airbus sold just two. And customers aren’t abandoning Boeing because of its recent struggles. Last week American Airlines announced an order for 260 narrow-body airplanes split between Boeing, Airbus and Embraer.

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The longtime CEO of Berkshire Hathaway’s Brooks Running, Jim Weber, is stepping down after more than 20 years in the running company’s top job.
Dan Sheridan, Brooks’ chief operating officer and president, will take over on April 26.
“Warren Buffett famously asked every one of the CEOs every year for a letter. And in the letter, you had to put who your successor was, and he didn’t open it unless he had to,” Weber said. “So we did that and … we started really getting serious about succession planning.” 

COO and President Dan Sheridan of Brooks Running
Courtesy: Brooks

The longtime CEO of Berkshire Hathaway’s Brooks Running, Jim Weber, is stepping down after more than 20 years in the top job, the company will announce Tuesday. 
Brooks veteran Dan Sheridan, who started at the running company in a marketing role in 1998 and worked his way up to chief operating officer and president, will take over on April 26. 

Weber, who brought Brooks back from the brink of bankruptcy, steered it through four different owners and built it into a $1 billion-plus brand, told CNBC he’s sad to step down and leave what he called the “best job in the world.” But after he recovered from cancer several years ago, he said he is looking to “dial back” and find more balance in his life.
“I’m super proud of what we built. I’ve been CEO for 23 years and if I add two years in front of that as a board member, it’s been 25 years so it’s just been such a great run,” Weber said in an interview. “We’ve got a company that’s achieved a lot and has incredible opportunity looking ahead. We’ve got momentum right now.” 
Sheridan is inheriting what he called a thriving business. He has taken on a bigger role in building it in the last few years as Weber prepared him to take over.
Last year, Brooks hit $1.2 billion in sales, a more than 5% increase globally. Much of that growth came in North America, where the company takes in about 80% of its total revenue.
Looking ahead, Sheridan has his eyes on global expansion and building out Brooks’ product offering. That includes plans to build the first Brooks Running store in China, an “absolute growth market” for the brand, according to Sheridan. He said the company also aims to expand direct sales in the U.S. and grow wholesale partnerships in Europe.

“I’m lucky because not many new CEOs get to step in and inherit what I would call a sound business, a sound culture and a sound brand, and the strength that we have is pretty unique,” said Sheridan. “So I don’t have a turnaround, I don’t have to come in and make sweeping changes.” 
Soon after Brooks Running became a stand-alone subsidiary company of Berkshire Hathaway in 2012, Weber and his team were asked to start succession planning. They began to “formalize” and “professionalize” the process that eventually led to Sheridan’s appointment, Weber said.
“Warren Buffett famously asked every one of the CEOs every year for a letter. And in the letter, you had to put who your successor was, and he didn’t open it unless he had to,” Weber said. “So we did that and … we started really getting serious about succession planning.” 

Brooks Running CEO Jim Weber
Courtesy: Brooks

As Sheridan climbed up the ranks from a sales manager to executive vice president overseeing global sales, his “insatiable” eagerness, curiosity and ambition to learn more about the company caught Weber’s eye, the outgoing CEO said.
He identified Sheridan as someone who aspired to lead at a higher level. Over the last five years, Weber spent time exposing his now-successor to different parts of the business, covering everything from strategy and marketing to corporation functions like legal and finance. As it became more clear in the last two years that Sheridan would take over for Weber, the incoming chief executive was able to take a turn in the driver’s seat and implement strategy. 
“His fingerprints, in the last 24 months, are on our strategy,” said Weber.
While Sheridan has been exposed to every facet of the business and is “ready” for the top job, his biggest challenges are ahead, said Weber. Performance running is a bright spot in an otherwise pressured footwear market, but Sheridan will have to contend with an uncertain economy, supply chain disruptions, steep competition and the ever-shifting whims of its target consumer, to name a few hurdles. 
“I think the thing that I’ve learned the most in my time with Jim is that in these roles that are super hard, judgment is the most important thing for any leader,” said Sheridan. “Judgment is something you get through experience but it’s also something you get through thoughtful listening in the team around you. So I’m sharpening my judgment for the future … and that’s been something that Jim has ingrained in me and helped me tune.”

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Kohl’s said it will add Babies R Us shops to approximately 200 of its stores across the country in the fall.
The retailer struck a deal with WHP Global, a brand management firm that owns Babies R Us.
Kohl’s is trying to add more merchandise to stores to attract foot traffic and younger shoppers.

Shoppers walk in front of a Kohl’s store in Mount Kisco, New York.
Scott Mlyn | CNBC

Kohl’s said Tuesday that it’s teaming up with the owner of Babies R Us to bring baby gear, furniture and more to approximately 200 of its stores across the country.
The retailer struck a licensing deal with WHP Global, a brand management firm with a portfolio that includes Bonobos, Joe’s Jeans and Anne Klein. The two companies did not disclose the terms of the agreement.

In a news release, Kohl’s said the first Babies R Us shops will open this August and expand to more stores in the fall. Kohl’s said the shops will range from 750 to 2,500 square feet, and will add more brands and merchandise to Kohl’s baby category. The retailer said the new shops will be set up next to the baby merchandise it already carries, including clothes and items from Graco, Carter’s and Fisher-Price.
With the move, Kohl’s is adding another potential growth driver to its stores. It’s been trying to turn around declining sales, draw more foot traffic and attract younger customers while led by its new CEO Tom Kingsbury, the former CEO of off-price chain Burlington Stores. Kohl’s former CEO Michelle Gass left the company in late 2022 to eventually take over the top role at Levi Strauss after intense pressure from activists and a failed effort to sell to the Franchise Group, owner of The Vitamin Shoppe.
Kingsbury said in the news release that Kohl’s is focused on driving growth with a more relevant mix of merchandise. He said Babies R Us is an example of a way it plans to “further establish Kohl’s as the go-to brand for families.”

A shopping cart sits in the parking lot at a Babies “R” Us store on January 24, 2018 in Chicago, Illinois.
Scott Olson | Getty Images

Along with Babies R Us, Kohl’s has a deal with Sephora that has opened beauty shops inside of hundreds of its stores.
WHP Global has a similar deal with Macy’s, which has opened Toys R Us shops inside of many of its stores.

Kohl’s shared the news as it reported its holiday-quarter quarter earnings results. The retailer topped Wall Street’s holiday-quarter expectations for earnings and revenue, but its net sales declined 1.1%. Its comparable sales, a metric that takes out the impact of store openings, closures and renovations, dropped 4.3%.
Kohl’s gave conservative guidance for the year ahead. It said it expects net sales to range from a 1% decrease to 1% increase for the full year and comparable sales to range from flat to 2% higher. It expects earnings per share between $2.10 and $2.70, excluding any non-recurring charges. That would represent a drop from $2.85 in the previous fiscal year.
During the holiday season, Kohl’s offered glimpses of its turnaround plan. It expanded its assortment of pet merchandise, home decor, and impulse and gifting items to drive sales. It leaned on Sephora shops inside of its stores to draw shoppers. And it cleared away space in front of stores to make trendy and seasonal items more prominent when customers walked into a location.
As of Monday’s close, Kohl’s shares have fallen about 5% so far this year. That’s trailed behind the approximately 7% gains of the S&P 500 during the same period. Kohl’s shares closed on Monday at $27.19, bringing the company’s market value to $3.01 billion. More

Southwest said it would reevaluate its 2024 financial forecast because of Boeing’s delivery delays this year.
Airline CEOs have been frustrated by repeated setbacks at Boeing that have delayed deliveries of new planes.
Boeing is facing a quality control crisis in the wake of a blown fuselage panel on an Alaska Airlines flight earlier this year.

Boeing 737 MAX airplanes are seen parked at a Boeing facility on August 13, 2019 in Renton, Washington.
David Ryder | Getty Images

Southwest Airlines said Tuesday that it will have to trim its capacity plans and reevaluate its financial forecasts for the year, citing delivery delays from Boeing, its sole supplier of airplanes.
The Dallas-based airline said Boeing informed Southwest’s leaders that it should expect 46 Boeing 737 Max 8 planes this year, down from 58. Southwest had expected Boeing to deliver 79 Max planes, including some of the smallest model, the Max 7, which hasn’t yet won certification from the Federal Aviation Administration.

Because of the delays, Southwest said in a filing that it is “reevaluating all prior full year 2024 guidance, including the expectation for capital spending.”
Southwest’s statements, ahead of a JPMorgan industry conference on Tuesday, are the latest sign of how Boeing’s quality control crisis and production problems — both before and after a door plug blew out of an Alaska Airlines flight in January — are weighing on some of its best customers.
Alaska Airlines said in a filing Tuesday that its 2024 capacity is “in flux due to uncertainty around the timing of aircraft deliveries as a result of increased Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Justice scrutiny on Boeing and its operations.”
Last week, United told staff that it would have to pause pilot hiring this spring because of late-arriving aircraft from Boeing, CNBC reported. Southwest said it has stopped hiring pilots, flight attendants and other employees this year and expects to end 2024 with lower headcount than last year.
Southwest shares were down more than 7% in premarket trading. The airline said leisure bookings in the first quarter were weaker than expected and forecast unit revenue to be flat to up no more than 2% compared with a year earlier, down from a January estimate of a rise of as much as 4.5%.
Boeing didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

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