Boeing barges into aircraft-seat business in threat to suppliers

Fed up with delays that have plagued production of luxurious jetliner cabins, Boeing is forming its own company with a major seat supplier to the auto industry. The joint venture with Adient will be based near Frankfurt, Germany, along with a technology centre and an initial production plant, the companies said Tuesday. It will market seats to airlines and leasing companies that are ordering new planes and retrofitting older ones. The strategy furthers Boeing’s foray into so-called vertical integration as CE Dennis Muilenburg seeks to bring more work back in-house. That’s a reversal of the global outsourcing that dominated strategy at the planemaker a decade ago. Boeing said the Adient Aerospace venture was prompted by seat production foul-ups and a capacity crunch that have delayed jet deliveries and frustrated airlines. <br/>