Government Affairs Insight

Air Traffic Control

Nick West handles Boeing’s public affairs in the UK. He told Public Affairs News Editor Jolyon Kimble about representing a global giant in the UK and dealing with issues such as trade disputes and sustainable aviation

I went to meet Nick West at the Boeing offices in St James’s Street, and I began by asking him what the global aviation giant, that operates out of Seattle in the USA, did in the UK. He told me that Boeing has a broad range of interests in Britain, including design and development work – “some secret, but other work like that on the Nimrod and the Apache aircraft is in the public domain” – and a couple of businesses linked to flight training and flight data. Boeing doesn’t have a large manufacturing presence in the UK, and that means the company puts a lot of emphasis on conveying the value of its supplier and partner relationships to decision-makers.

West points out that these relationships create valuable intellectual property and support long term and high value jobs. That’s very important to Boeing when it comes to winning defence campaigns, particularly in the light of the new Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS). The DIS was formed to support skills retention in the UK, and promote working with indigenous UK partners. “We do a lot of work that chimes with that,” says West.

One of the things that has really worked in favour of Boeing’s newest civil aircraft, the 787 Dreamliner, is the big stake that UK plc has in the aircraft. Rolls-Royce are developing the engines, and Smiths is producing the core computer system. Another major company is building the undercarriage. Much of the wind tunnel work and noise profi ling is done in the UK. However, I put it to West that the British film industry has said Hollywood uses British skills but none of the money stays in Britain. I wondered if Boeing ever got accused of that.

“No because we have risk-sharing partners on this programme,” he replied. “Rolls-Royce, Smiths and others have a long term vested interest in the success of the project.”

On the defence side, Boeing are doing a lot of work this year on RAF Chinooks and an AWACS programme that would see a considerable application of technology from the USA. West says the company is always looking at how the UK can benefit from these kinds of programmes, and acknowledges that “there’s always an element of governmental communication” built into such things. Relationships with government, he says, are strong. “On defence matters, we have a good dialogue with the Defence Export Services Organisation at the MoD, as well as the wider department, and we work closely with the DTI too,” he says.

I asked West if the MoD was really responsive to what the company had to say. “Absolutely. We regularly host visits for senior MoD officials to the USA, and we have a very healthy dialogue from this office, and our programme directors go to the MoD to talk about specific programmes,” he told me. “However, we don’t just target government departments, we go out to the regions too and we’re pretty broad in scope.”

I asked him about the Joint Strike Fighter engines decision. Earlier this year the Pentagon decided to cancel an alternative engine programme for the U.S. Air Force’s Joint Strike Fighter, essentially taking Rolls-Royce off the programme. “That episode didn’t directly involve you, but it hurt trans-Atlantic relations,” I reminded him. “Can you help there?”

West said that he “wouldn’t want to comment directly on that as it isn’t our programme,” but added that Boeing was always pushing for greater technology transfer between the allies. “We work with the US Department of Defence and the MoD and try and facilitate that transfer where necessary.” I put it to him that he must have been given high level clearance by the government. “I’m an ex-Royal Marine so I have top-secret level clearance. But I’ve never needed it here,” he said.

Boeing has famously been having a trade dispute with Airbus, and I asked how that affected government relations. The latest is that litigation is proceeding at the WTO, with a clear timetable, and the first hearings take place in June. So what was the crux of the issue?

“We’ve been clear all along that we wanted to see the end of “Launch Aid” – [a subsidy given to Airbus], and we’ve found an understanding of our position in the UK,” West said, although he added that he couldn’t go into the specific details of discussions with politicians and other stakeholders. “It’s a very complex procedure and we’ve been working closely on it with the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). They [Airbus], in turn, have been talking with the relevant member states and with the European Union.”

As a company which produces products that burn fuels, I asked West how Boeing handled accusations that products harmed the environment, and how they get their own message on environmental concern out. “There’s a really intense debate about sustainable aviation. Just about all of our communication has some kind of sustainable aviation element built into it,” he said. “Take the 787 Dreamliner. That’s going to burn 20 per cent less fuel and will create far less noise pollution than anything comparable. When we tell that to regional airport stakeholders and parliament it resonates very well.”

I asked him if Boeing pursued its sustainable aviation aims in conjunction with the carrier customers. He said they worked with carriers where they had common purpose. Often, Boeing finds that what they are trying to communicate fits in with the CSR ‘footprint’ that carriers are trying to achieve.

“It’s quite complementary,” he says. “We also work with organisations like Green by Design, the Aeronautical Society and others to try and get those ideas across. More could probably be done from an industry standpoint, but I think a lot of companies play their own discrete role.

Airport expansion issues are always high on the agenda. I asked if Boeing was centrally involved in that debate. It seems the company’s attitude towards this question reveals an ideological difference between Boeing and Airbus.

“The debate really impacts on us when it comes to the 747-8. Our argument is that the 747-8 [the biggest ever jumbo jet] would use the existing infrastructure and the existing ground-handling equipment, whereas the Airbus A380 [the new double-decker aircraft capable of carrying 555 people] needs airports to adapt,” says West. This would involve investment and take time. Boeing doesn’t see the value. “You have to remember that only 17 per cent of aircraft departures at Heathrow are of aircraft with 300 seats or more.”

Boeing has a very small team, and West takes care of almost everything. “I do media relations, PA work and marketing communications, and I work closely with our suppliers and partners on a variety of different projects,” he says. The team consists of a Communications Manager and Communications Assistant who jointly work on media relations, sponsorships, CSR, events, and the new UK website which is under development, amongst other things.

The Boeing UK team also has a business development VP for the Integrated Defense Systems business as well as an Industrial Participation Director. “We have good relationships with RDAs, trade associations and unions,” says West. The team also includes a former diplomat, Sir Roger Bone, ex-British ambassador to Sweden and Brazil as its Country President, and he’s been involved in a whole variety of things on behalf of the company. “We have counterparts in France, Italy, Germany, Spain and Dubai and we report to the Head of International Comms. We’re effectively nodes on the Boeing network. That’s the team. But we also use Luther Pendragon for agency support, and they do media relations and a little public affairs,” he adds.

“How much steer do you get from the USA, and how much do they leave you to your own devices?” I ask. It seems that Boeing isn’t overly prescriptive as it’s very mindful of the need to operate with respect to the local environment. “There are key messages about aircraft which you can tailor specifically to the customer community, but in terms of positioning it in a broader context we have the local knowledge and take the lead. We get a lot of latitude,” West adds.