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2024 on Monocle Radio. Hello

1:13

and welcome to The Briefing, coming to you

1:15

live from Studio One here at Midori House

1:18

in London. I'm Andrew Muller, coming up on

1:20

today's programme. There's no substitute in our judgment

1:22

for face to face diplomacy

1:24

in order to try to move forward, but

1:26

also to make sure that we're as

1:28

clear as possible about the areas where we have differences.

1:31

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken

1:34

has China's list of red lines

1:36

read to him. Boeing's first quarter

1:38

results merely bad, as opposed to

1:41

the anticipated dreadful. A wrap

1:43

up of the day's business news and.

1:46

Do not be fooled by our politeness. Our

1:50

bows are made of rituals. Death

1:54

is in our air. A Look

1:57

at what you could be watching this weekend. That's

1:59

all coming up. He on the briefing

2:01

on monocle radiate. Welcome

2:09

to today's edition of the briefing

2:11

with me Andrew Miller. The United

2:13

States and the People's Republic of

2:15

China are once again attempting to

2:17

decide how much they dislike each

2:19

other. Us Secretary of State Anthony

2:21

Blink and is in Beijing, where

2:23

his opposite number, Chinese Foreign Minister,

2:25

Wang Yi, welcomed him much as

2:27

the local protection racket might welcome

2:29

a new business to the neighborhood

2:31

Quote: Should China and the United

2:33

States keep to the right direction

2:35

of moving forward with stability, eat

2:37

or return to a downward. Spiral

2:39

joining me to discuss how one

2:41

even begins answering that question is

2:43

Isabel Hilton, founder of China Dialogue

2:45

and a visiting professor at King's

2:47

College London's Lau Institutes? I'm Isabel

2:49

what would have happened if Lincoln

2:52

and said I'll take the downward

2:54

spiral please. Let

2:57

that he says he wouldn't get a

2:59

meeting with least illness is that still

3:02

hasn't been concerned that he was on

3:04

the naughty step up. Live in the

3:06

Us Attorney's pretty robust. Use this as

3:09

it as as you know, They've saved

3:11

his arms, his to issued. A

3:13

very long statement in fairly unfriendly ten

3:15

saying this is how your to the

3:17

whole while you're here and if you

3:20

do well, okay with in Terry until

3:22

kids. Oh, but either way it's good

3:24

to talk, but if you go on

3:26

saying one thing and doing another, that's

3:28

not good enough. So it's pretty undiplomatic

3:31

staff and that I doubt this thing.

3:33

To. Be huge progress on either side.

3:35

Senses are in before we get

3:37

to today's meeting if we measure

3:39

the current situation against. I don't

3:41

know the last decade or so

3:43

how good or bad are things

3:45

between Beijing and Washington? Confess.

3:47

To a decade ago, very bad compared

3:49

to two years ago, even a year

3:51

ago. marginally better. Not in the sense

3:54

that any it's the structural issues to

3:56

be resolved, but with at least they're

3:58

talking and agreeing to me. The

4:00

differences aside for say, look,

4:03

We are going to have differences. It's important.

4:05

Not to let me get out of

4:07

control, but on the margins of those

4:10

statements, things continue to happen. China's behavior

4:12

v. to v the Philippines in the

4:14

South China. Sea has been extremely

4:16

provocative recently and this particular Philippines

4:18

government is an ally of of

4:21

the United States. On like the

4:23

previous one, so you know that

4:25

the talk goes on. but the

4:27

provocations continue and. On. The Us side,

4:30

there's more and more robust rhetoric.

4:32

Or over trade issues over in

4:34

a what's should. Be bad deal

4:37

for sanctions. Have a shitty

4:39

job at over support for

4:41

Taiwan so you know talking.

4:44

Just. About hold it together. So now

4:46

I'm so these visits do matter, but

4:48

we shouldn't. Bleeding to com the scorecard

4:50

could cheat. On

4:53

a one you Chinese Foreign Minister

4:55

has been trying to set out

4:57

what he described as red lines

4:59

on areas like sovereignty, security and

5:01

developments we we have used to

5:03

to narrow this vague conceptualization down

5:05

some what what is an example

5:07

of a red Lines that join

5:10

a will Not Tolerate the United

5:12

States crossing. Over the prime

5:14

one is Taiwan. That's the first red

5:16

line and statement it must not be

5:18

cross. Taiwan is part of China and

5:20

Taiwan questions China's internal affair and them

5:23

and you know that's that's the one

5:25

they're saying. We could do what the

5:27

like over Taiwan, just stay out of

5:29

it. It's none of your business now

5:31

cause that's a direct challenge as get

5:34

a China or Taiwan. Has treaty

5:36

relationship to the United States. It

5:38

has economic and political lessons. So

5:42

it's to say we can do.

5:44

What we like and you can't interfere is

5:46

is a bit of a bad rap. It's

5:48

not something the Us could accept. and beyond

5:50

that a. Human Rights and

5:53

Change The Question: A slave labor

5:55

and. To bet you know those

5:57

who the traditional ones. But. This

5:59

one. picture here, which is

6:01

that China is seeking to redefine

6:03

the global definitions of human rights

6:06

in the sense that now they talk about

6:08

universal human rights with air quotes around the

6:10

universal. And they're essentially

6:12

saying you cannot interfere in the

6:15

internal affairs of another country, starting

6:17

with China, but also as a

6:19

proposition for the world, which radically

6:21

rewrites the UN approach.

6:24

But on the subject of Taiwan in

6:26

particular, Wang Yi knows that that's all

6:28

nonsense, doesn't he? He knows that the

6:31

United States is very invested in Taiwan

6:33

and certainly is interfering by any definition

6:35

that China would apply. There was, of

6:37

course, more aid to Taiwan in this

6:40

much delayed package, including the $61 billion

6:42

in aid for Ukraine that was recently

6:44

passed by Congress. Indeed,

6:48

China knows the United States isn't going to

6:50

stay out of Taiwan, but this is this

6:52

kind of is just hardening

6:54

up the position. I mean, China used to

6:56

say, we advocate for a

7:00

peaceful resolution of Taiwan.

7:02

Now it's far more

7:04

robust. And by laying down these

7:07

markets, by saying that peace

7:09

on the Taiwan Straits and, quote,

7:11

Taiwan independence are as irreconcilable as

7:13

fire and water, they're basically saying

7:15

if anything happens in the Taiwan

7:17

Straits, it's the fault of the

7:19

United States. Or if anything

7:21

happens on Taiwan proper, for that matter, it's

7:24

the fault of the United States. Rather as

7:26

they do in Ukraine, where

7:28

essentially they blame Ukraine supporters

7:30

for adding fuel to the

7:32

fire, rather than Russia for

7:37

invading in the first place. Well, on

7:39

which subject? Blinken did turn up in

7:41

Beijing with kind of a riot act

7:43

of his own. He has said that

7:45

in his meeting with Xi Jinping, he

7:47

did challenge him on China's

7:50

support for Russia. Is there

7:52

really any hope of, if

7:54

not the United States actually prizing China

7:57

and Russia apart, then encouraging China to

7:59

do that? to see that Russia is

8:01

perhaps not the winning side to be on?

8:04

Well, I think the difficulty there is

8:06

that I don't think Xi Jinping can afford to see

8:09

Putin lose in any major

8:11

way or Putin to lose his position. And

8:15

losing the war might, you never quite know where

8:17

that ends. So what

8:19

China is trying to do is to

8:21

stop the negative consequences for China becoming

8:24

too great while taking careful note of

8:26

the limitations of what the United States

8:28

can do. Beyond supporting

8:31

the military effort in Ukraine and

8:35

imposing sanctions, we've seen that

8:37

those sanctions are full of

8:39

holes, particularly if countries like

8:41

India and China put their

8:43

mind to getting

8:45

around them as they have. So the

8:48

fact that China supplies dual-use technologies

8:50

to Russia, they're not actually

8:53

directly supplying arms, but they

8:55

are enabling Russia to rebuild

8:57

its military industrial base. And

8:59

those dual-use technologies, such as

9:01

drones, have been critical in

9:04

the war itself. So

9:06

it's pretty blatant sanctions busting

9:09

in spirit, if not in

9:11

law. Now, the threat that

9:13

the United States is bringing

9:16

in Blinken's briefcase is

9:18

that if this goes on, the

9:20

United States will sanction China's

9:24

financial institutions, the banks. And this

9:26

is another arena of contestation which

9:28

is going to go on getting

9:30

worse. So the US

9:32

control of the dollar and therefore

9:34

of international transactions is a

9:36

pretty powerful weapon. But when deployed against

9:38

Russia, as it has been, what has

9:41

happened is that China and Russia are

9:43

now doing their trade denominated in renminbi

9:45

in the Chinese currency, the same with

9:47

Iran. And China is trying to build

9:49

up alternatives to the SWIFT system, and

9:53

partly to insulate itself from any

9:55

sanctions that might arise from

9:57

Taiwan. So the more that threat is

10:01

dangled, the more China will make efforts to

10:03

build alternative systems. And

10:05

to sanction, for example, a major

10:07

state owned Chinese bank would

10:10

be a kind of declaration of financial

10:12

war and that would be a very

10:14

serious situation. Isabel Hilton, thank

10:16

you as always for joining us. You are

10:19

listening to the briefing. Here is Monica Lillith

10:21

with today's other news headlines. Thanks

10:23

Andrew. Haitian Prime Minister Ariel

10:25

Henri has resigned, paving the way for

10:27

a transitional council to lead the embattled

10:30

country. The nine member transitional

10:32

council, where seven members will have voting powers,

10:34

is expected to help set the agenda of

10:36

a new cabinet. The

10:39

South Korean government has denied being

10:41

responsible for the disastrous 25th Wild

10:43

Scout Jamboree last year after being

10:45

held to blame by investigators. Last

10:48

summer, tens of thousands were evacuated from

10:50

the campsite due to problems with the

10:52

food and medical facilities. A

10:55

huge black barrier to block Mount Fuji

10:57

from view will be installed in a

10:59

popular photo spot by Japanese authorities exasperated

11:02

by crowds of badly behaved foreign

11:04

tourists. Construction of the mesh

11:06

net 2.5 metres high and

11:08

the length of a cricket pitch at 20

11:10

metres will begin as early as next week.

11:14

Those are the day's headlines. Back to you,

11:16

Andrew. Thank you, Monica.

11:18

You are listening to the briefing on Monocle

11:20

Radio with me, Andrew Muller. It's time now

11:22

to take a look at the latest business

11:24

news with the head of investment at Interactive

11:27

Investor, Victoria Schola. Victoria, first of all, a

11:30

rise in shares in Google's parent

11:32

company better than expected earnings. Do

11:34

we understand why they were better

11:36

than expected? Yeah,

11:38

a pretty huge rise actually,

11:40

more than 11% in terms

11:42

of the surge in Alphabet's

11:45

share price. I think it was partly

11:47

due to the fact that its earnings

11:50

beat expectations, but it was also because

11:52

the company reported its first ever dividend

11:54

worth almost $2.5 billion, which

11:57

investors are clearly very happy about and looks like it's

11:59

a big deal. evaluation that set to

12:01

surge past $2 trillion. The

12:03

company is also returning cash

12:05

to shareholders, not just through

12:07

the dividend, but also through

12:09

a $70 billion share buyback.

12:11

So it's a major payday

12:13

for Alphabet investors. In

12:15

terms of the results, we know that revenue jumped 15%

12:17

out pacing expectations.

12:20

The company's CEO, Sundar Pichai,

12:22

said that it was a

12:24

strong performance for Search, YouTube,

12:26

and Cloud, and Google

12:28

was well underway in artificial

12:31

intelligence. Good news

12:33

elsewhere in the tech sector as

12:35

well. A strong set of results

12:37

from Microsoft. Are these related phenomena

12:39

in any respect? Yes,

12:42

absolutely. Both companies are heavily

12:44

invested in artificial intelligence, which

12:46

is a huge market theme

12:48

and has been propelling gains

12:50

across the tech sector with

12:52

companies like NVIDIA staging incredibly

12:54

strong share price performances

12:56

over the last 12

12:58

to 18 months. But we've seen that shares in

13:01

Microsoft jumped by more than 4% after it reported

13:04

earnings that beat expectations. Revenue

13:06

hitting nearly $62 billion,

13:08

and that's because of billions

13:11

in investment into AI, particularly

13:13

in cloud computing, where revenue

13:15

surged by 20%. And

13:18

its CEO, Satya Nadella, said

13:20

that Microsoft's AI tools

13:23

are orchestrating a new

13:25

era of AI transformation,

13:27

driving business outcomes across

13:29

every role and industry.

13:31

Is there any caution discernible in the

13:34

market where these AI led surges in

13:36

shares are concerned? This would not be

13:38

the first tech bubble which has popped

13:40

when it proved

13:43

something short of what was expected. Yeah,

13:46

I think that's absolutely right. And there's no doubt

13:49

that valuations have got pretty ahead of themselves. And

13:51

that's why we have seen some

13:53

stocks correcting in recent weeks. We've

13:56

seen huge share price gains

13:58

for the next year. the

14:00

likes of Microsoft,

14:02

Meta, Nvidia and

14:05

others. And so I think

14:07

investors are thinking that stocks are pretty expensive right

14:09

now so it wouldn't be surprising to see more

14:11

of a correction. Just finally

14:13

another topic that will have been raised

14:15

in the meetings between US Secretary of

14:17

State Anthony Blinken and his Chinese hosts

14:20

is the future of TikTok. There has been

14:22

some sort of announcement from its parent company

14:25

about whether it's going to do what the

14:27

US is telling it. Yes

14:29

and it looks like the parent company

14:32

isn't going to do what they're telling

14:34

it to. China's tech giant ByteDance insists

14:36

that the company has no plans to

14:39

sell TikTok after the US passed the

14:41

law to force the sale of the

14:43

business or else ban the social media

14:46

company altogether stateside. TikTok

14:48

said it's planning to challenge

14:50

the unconstitutional law in court

14:52

after a tech website the information

14:55

said that TikTok was exploring a

14:57

sale of its US operation without

14:59

the algorithm. Now this is

15:02

a company that's 20% owned by

15:04

its Chinese founder but it's actually

15:06

majority owned by institutional investors so

15:08

60% are owned by them including

15:11

some major US companies

15:13

like the Carlyle Group and General

15:15

Atlantic. Victoria Schola at

15:17

Interactive Investor thank you for joining us

15:19

you're listening to the briefing on Monocle

15:22

Radio. You're

15:30

back with the briefing on Monocle Radio

15:32

with me Andrew Muller. Time now to

15:34

get a look at the latest film

15:36

and TV releases which will be hitting

15:38

our screens this weekend or next week

15:40

with the TV and culture critic Ashanti

15:43

Omkar. Ashanti we're going to start with

15:45

challenges which I believe is out now.

15:48

That's right it is out right

15:50

now it's Luca Guadagnino's latest. It's

15:53

a you know it's been labeled as a

15:55

romantic sports film which I really I really

15:57

quite like the way they've labeled that because

15:59

very rare to find a film that

16:01

mixes sports with romance. This one is

16:03

all around tennis and it has Zendaya

16:07

in it. Zendaya, obviously we've

16:09

seen her kind of become an actress

16:11

from being a singer and she's really

16:15

bringing her A-game now. She's getting better

16:17

and better. She was in Dune 2,

16:20

she's in the Dune series and she's

16:22

literally flaying as we would say because

16:24

she is doing such a great job.

16:26

But in this one she stars with

16:29

Josh O'Connor and Mike Face. We've

16:31

seen Josh obviously in The Crown. He's

16:33

a superb actor and it's really nice

16:35

to kind of see him doing a

16:38

role like this. It's a very kind

16:40

of intense, very sexy film

16:42

actually and Luca Guadagnino always goes

16:45

for these slightly different topics and

16:47

in this case he's taken the

16:50

backdrop of tennis for it. I mean

16:53

all romantic comedies I guess have

16:55

to be set somewhere or in

16:57

some context but are

16:59

there lots of laboured analogies

17:01

between romance and tennis?

17:03

Are there interminable sequences of jokes

17:05

based on the double meaning of

17:07

love for example or are we

17:10

spared that? This is not a

17:12

rom-com. A romantic sports

17:14

film by no means is Luca

17:16

comedy. I'll be surprised if anyone

17:18

laughs during this film because this

17:20

film has not only a something

17:23

score but it's a very intense

17:25

love triangle and the character

17:27

of Zendaya is that this is a

17:29

woman who wants to dominate in some

17:31

way or the other and that's you

17:33

know she goes from a young

17:36

girl who's kind of playing tennis, really

17:38

good at tennis, finds out

17:40

that at some point in life she can't, I

17:42

don't want to give you a spoiler about

17:44

it, it is a very big theme there

17:46

but at some point in life she

17:48

realizes she can't continue playing tennis so

17:50

what she does is she set her

17:52

sights on these two guys who are

17:54

amazing tennis players with Mike Fist and

17:57

and Josh O'Connor and Mike is the

17:59

one, Donal and they

18:01

become the Donaldsons and the Donaldsons are now

18:03

here to dominate and this is what she's

18:05

this is not really a comedy at all

18:07

you will not see any any funny

18:10

scenes in that sense it might make you chuckle

18:12

here and there but this is a very very

18:14

serious film okay well let's

18:16

move along to the fall guy and

18:18

I am ancient enough that I can

18:20

remember the actual TV program and incredibly

18:22

I realized earlier I can still actually

18:24

just about hum the theme tune I'm

18:26

not going

18:29

to do that to be clear but I think it's

18:31

important for listeners to know that I could if I

18:33

wish to I

18:35

love I love that you you remember

18:37

this this one is an action comedy

18:39

this one is a comedy and it

18:41

will make you laugh a lot this

18:43

is David leech giving us you know

18:45

this look into the world of stumps

18:47

and he gives us such a great

18:49

look in fact it's a category that

18:51

that should be lauded more in the

18:53

world of cinema and it isn't as

18:55

much you know in action cinema and

18:57

this one has the perfect casting the

18:59

the barbenheimer duo as I like to

19:01

call them Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt

19:03

coming together with Winston Duke Aaron Taylor

19:06

Johnson who may be our next James

19:08

Bond Hannah Haddingham you know

19:10

she's a she's become a national treasure for

19:12

the UK from her Ted Lasso days and

19:14

Stephanie Shue will make an appearance in it

19:16

that will make you smile and and probably

19:19

go off a little bit here and there

19:21

this one is is really

19:23

good fun I have to say

19:25

that I was already expecting it

19:28

to be great it came via

19:30

SXSW and I went into

19:32

this and thought this is just the type

19:34

of movie I want to let kind of you

19:36

know you've had a long week you've been working

19:38

hard on a Friday night or on the weekend

19:40

this is the perfect film and it comes out

19:42

on the on the 2nd of May so it's

19:45

we don't have long to go to watch it

19:47

but would listeners be correct in anticipating

19:49

a lot of explosions and car accidents?

19:51

100% The car

19:54

cases are brilliant, the fight sequences

19:56

are brilliant, and there's a film

19:58

within the film. Though it gives

20:00

you a dormant kind of immense as the

20:03

you into that action in such a brilliant.

20:05

Ring Obviously this is a reformer Ninety

20:08

Nineties Tv series. Do they do any

20:10

sort of side i to cameras metre

20:12

references to the original Fall Guy? Or

20:14

do they assume at this point that

20:17

people who are old enough to remember

20:19

the original Full Guy? probably a bit

20:21

past going to see movies with explosions

20:23

and our choices and them. There

20:26

are bits and pieces but to be honest

20:28

this is a completely new film and it's

20:30

own right. And whilst it is give the

20:32

nod to the it to the own theories

20:35

on the atheists this one really is is

20:37

if you know says it's own story this

20:39

own right. the youth a little bit seven

20:41

their butts. This is very much in a

20:43

modern setting. Will finally to so

20:45

gun a clip of which we did

20:47

He at the top of the So

20:50

this is streaming now on Disney Plus

20:52

so Disney Plus enabled listeners can tune

20:54

into the soon as they don listening

20:56

to the briefing. Are we recommending this.

20:59

We're recommending this very very highly. This

21:01

is one of the best theories to

21:03

come out in in many years and

21:05

it is absolutely some fantastic You can

21:07

now be the whole thing so it

21:09

has just either they were giving it

21:11

off in Britain grabs every week Announced

21:13

finally got these the thing on his

21:15

come out the now you can watches

21:17

in one one shot and scientists have

21:19

to say to you been doing this

21:21

is the best way to consume it

21:23

It looks into a piece of history

21:25

since me to thing because you know

21:27

I certainly didn't know that there. Was

21:29

there was a young man from Tens in

21:31

the Uk who who who goes to Japan

21:34

and then become tied up in feudal Japan

21:36

in in such a way we get to

21:38

really experience Japanese culture. You be heading for

21:40

your matter t and and you either you

21:43

have you you want to do all the

21:45

thing when you're watching this and off the

21:47

watching it I would say maybe go and.

21:49

Do some shopping on roots in

21:52

sit In Business in one shot.

21:54

So you're suggesting people perhaps could

21:56

equip themselves with the necessary cuisine?

21:58

Perhaps even the costume. I'm

22:01

just having ideas over here. I

22:03

mean, if you're into cosplay, you might like

22:06

to do that. This is so

22:08

beautifully crafted. You know, it's going

22:10

to jump out at you in your homes.

22:12

I always wish that I saw this as

22:14

a long extended movie. I spent a whole

22:16

day watching this on the big screen. It

22:18

is really that beautiful. Well,

22:20

that does bring me to the final question I wanted

22:23

to ask about Shogun. James Clavell's

22:25

original novel is one of those proper

22:27

sort of 20,000 page doorstoppers. Obviously,

22:31

there is a sense of the epic about this

22:33

story. Does that

22:35

come across even if you are watching

22:37

it on a television, however hefty that

22:40

television may be? Absolutely, it does.

22:43

I can tell you that even if you saw this on

22:45

your tiny screen, and I don't recommend that because you won't

22:47

get that experience, but even if

22:49

you saw it on your phone screen, because they've

22:51

got a lot of beautiful close-ups. This

22:53

is what makes, you know, something like this work

22:56

for television so well. You can

22:58

give it that long form. And

23:00

also the way they've shot it, the

23:02

cinematography is just absolutely beautiful. And

23:04

you will be drawn to it on whatever size

23:07

screen you watch it. Ashanti Omkar, thank you

23:09

very much for joining us. You are listening

23:11

to The Briefing. You

23:21

are back with The Briefing on Monocle Radio.

23:23

Good news has been in such short supply

23:25

for Boeing of late that they're probably pretty

23:27

content at this point with news which is

23:29

not quite as bad as they expected. Boeing's

23:32

first bunch of quarterly results for

23:34

2024 reveal that persistent problems with

23:36

their 737 MAX

23:38

aircraft have indeed had an impact,

23:40

causing Boeing to burn through near

23:42

enough to $4 billion, though this

23:44

was half a billion dollars less

23:47

than they had been braced for.

23:49

Boeing's shares remain disinclined to take off,

23:51

however, down more than 34% since

23:54

the beginning of the year. Well, joining

23:57

me now is Anita Mandaratta, a special

23:59

adviser to the Secretary General. of the

24:01

United Nations World Tourism Organization and who

24:03

also runs a global management consultancy specialising

24:06

in tourism and development. Anita,

24:08

is it fair then to say that the problems with

24:10

737 MAX have

24:12

registered with airline passengers? Indeed.

24:15

And firstly, thank you very, very much for having me.

24:17

I'm very grateful and I'm grateful for the focus on

24:20

this. The 737 MAX

24:22

has indeed put the spotlight on Boeing

24:24

with travellers and investors in a way

24:26

that Boeing definitely did not want. It's

24:29

been a very difficult five years for them

24:31

in the last four months have been particularly

24:33

challenging and as you've rightly called

24:35

out, the FAA and the US has actually

24:38

put a production cap on the 737 MAX

24:41

which has again made travellers very nervous

24:43

as normally we're not talking about

24:46

the manufacturers. We're speaking about airlines

24:48

and now the boardroom conversations have

24:50

gone to the dining rooms with

24:52

travellers themselves. I mean, are

24:54

people miscalibrating the risks here? There is that

24:56

old joke in journalism about how nobody ever

24:59

wrote a headline story about a plane that

25:01

took off and landed just like it was

25:03

supposed to. Airline

25:05

and aircraft mishaps do attract

25:08

a disproportionate amount of attention

25:10

for obvious reasons. How

25:12

many people are really starting to think about whether or

25:14

not they really want to fly on a 737 MAX?

25:19

You're absolutely right. The natural

25:21

drama of any footage that we see

25:23

about airlines in trouble, especially when it

25:26

comes through social media and what Boeing

25:28

has experienced elevates the anxiety

25:30

around air travel as a whole. It actually

25:32

goes beyond the 737 and beyond Boeing. It

25:36

impacts the travellers perception of the

25:39

safety of airline travel per se.

25:42

Research was conducted just before Easter this year

25:44

with over 2,000 UK adults asking exactly

25:48

what you've just inquired on. Very

25:51

sadly, almost 33%, so almost a third of those

25:53

interviewed, are saying that they're losing

25:57

trust in air travel. Again, this

26:00

goes beyond Boeing, it impacts

26:02

Airbus, which is ultimately the largest

26:04

share of airline manufacturing, Boeing

26:06

having 40% Airbus

26:08

60%. But it is,

26:11

it's making people anxious. And for the

26:13

first time in a long time, travelers

26:15

are actually looking at not just what

26:17

their airline they want to travel on,

26:19

but the aircraft that that airline

26:21

actually utilizes. This is

26:23

unnatural, 16% are checking

26:26

the actual aircraft aircraft type.

26:29

And it's only going to get worse side here.

26:32

The Boeing appear to have any ideas

26:34

about how to restore trust. So I

26:36

guess I'm asking you say any readily

26:39

understood industry industry template for this kind

26:41

of thing, because it's not the first

26:43

time that an aircraft manufacturer or an

26:46

airline has had to reassure passengers accidents

26:48

do happen. Indeed,

26:50

you're you are absolutely right. And

26:52

sadly, accidents do happen as they

26:54

do with train travel and with

26:56

car travel. And unfortunately, however,

26:58

this again, as I say, covers all

27:01

airlines per se. An interesting aspect of

27:03

the airline industry is that as much

27:05

as the airlines and the aircraft manufacturers

27:07

will compete on many elements, they will

27:10

never compete on pricing, I beg your

27:12

pardon on safety, that is

27:14

one area they will never compete on. So

27:17

when we look at what's happening in terms

27:19

of travelers themselves and the airlines,

27:21

they're proceeding with caution. Boeing in

27:23

particular, has the internal challenges and

27:26

the solutions they need to find,

27:28

which starts ultimately with leadership. They

27:30

were given by the US government

27:33

90 days back at the

27:35

end of February to come up with

27:37

a very clear plan for safety and

27:39

transparency that they need to communicate. In

27:41

addition, as you know, well, there

27:43

have been very significant leadership changes

27:46

within Boeing itself. But

27:48

then when we look externally, what Boeing is

27:50

needing to very much be transparent

27:52

about is changes in culture,

27:54

putting safety and quality ahead of

27:57

profit and changes of ethics of

27:59

leadership. linked very much to what I've

28:01

just shared and in commitment to

28:03

travelers to ensuring that they can have the

28:05

peace of mind going forward. This

28:08

is something that is now an expectation

28:10

of both the industry and

28:12

the travelers themselves as well as

28:14

investors. So Boeing has quite

28:16

a significant to-do list to focus

28:18

on at all levels from

28:21

the point of view of industry,

28:23

travelers and investors. And

28:25

finally, I did mention introducing

28:27

this that Boeing shares have tanked fairly dramatically

28:30

since the start of this year and this

28:32

has been going on for a while. Does

28:34

that reflect an amount of nervousness from the

28:36

markets that the 737 MAX may not be

28:40

out of the woods yet? Because

28:42

one or two more mishaps and the problems start

28:45

to look a bit terminal with that aircraft, don't

28:47

they? Indeed. And

28:49

again, it's the aircraft but also it's

28:51

aviation per se. I think it's also

28:54

putting this in context that you

28:56

and I are travelers. We were grounded

28:58

for many years because of the pandemic and

29:00

there were over 14,000 commercial aircraft

29:03

grounded. This is the first

29:05

year we've had the blessing of seeing

29:08

aviation routes being established. And

29:10

so with Boeing having to ground many

29:12

of its 737s, with 737

29:15

production being capped, that

29:17

means that global travel is being held

29:19

back in terms of the ability to provide

29:21

the capacity that the world needs to get

29:23

traveling again and for cargo as

29:25

well. What does this mean for us

29:27

as travelers? Difficulty in getting our

29:30

actual seats in terms of being able to book where

29:32

we want to go when, increases

29:34

in pricing and as you've

29:36

called out, the increases in anxiety. So

29:39

it's going to be a very challenging year

29:41

for Boeing and for all of us in

29:43

the flying public. So we need to

29:45

keep an eye on this and I'm grateful that you

29:47

are keeping Monocle's eye on this. Anita

29:49

Mandaratta, thank you very much for joining us.

29:51

You're listening to the briefing on Monocle Radio

29:53

and that is all for this edition of

29:56

the briefing. It was produced by Tom Webb.

29:58

Our researcher was George Ruskin and our studio manager, I'm Andrew

30:00

Millip, and I'm Felicity. Thank

30:33

you for watching.