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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

A British man has pleaded guilty to two charges in a case that prosecutors have linked to Russia, and which falls under new national security legislation designed to crack down on hostile activity by foreign states.

Dylan Earl, 20, from Elmesthorpe in Leicestershire, admitted on Friday at a criminal court in London to a charge of aggravated arson undertaken in March on a commercial property in east London that has been linked to Ukraine.

Earl also admitted to plotting to endanger lives and commit acts of serious violence against people in the UK, an offence known as “preparatory conduct” under Britain’s 2023 National Security Act.

Following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, British relations with Russia have fallen to their lowest level since the cold war, and there have been multiple mutual allegations of spying.

Earlier this month, Ken McCallum, head of MI5, the UK’s domestic intelligence service, said that Russian military intelligence was on “a sustained mission to generate mayhem” on British streets, using “arson, sabotage . . . and dangerous actions conducted with increasing recklessness”, often via recruited proxies.

German intelligence has made similar allegations, with domestic spy chief Thomas Haldenwang warning this month of a significant increase in “aggressive behaviour” by Russian agents across Europe.

At the Old Bailey in London, Earl pleaded not guilty to a third charge — assisting a foreign intelligence service — and prosecutor Duncan Penny KC said his pleas would be accepted without the need for him to stand trial.

“The facts of the case and the conduct in which the defendant became involved may adequately be described under count two [of preparatory conduct],” Penny said, adding that this carried a longer maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

When first charged by the Crown Prosecution Service, Earl was “alleged to have engaged in conduct targeting businesses which were linked to Ukraine in order to benefit the Russian state”.

Three other defendants — Jakeem Rose, 22, of Croydon; Nii Mensah, 22, of Thornton Heath; and Paul English, 61, of Roehampton — are also accused alongside Earl of the aggravated arson charge. They pleaded not guilty on Friday, although Rose admitted to being guilty of “simple arson”.

Jake Reeves, 23, from Croydon, and Ugnius Asmena, 19, from Wandsworth, have not yet entered a plea to the aggravated arson charge.

Reeves faces an additional charge of accepting “material benefit”, such as cash, knowing that it was from a foreign intelligence service.

A sixth defendant, Dmitrijus Paulauskas, 22, from Croydon, pleaded not guilty at a hearing earlier this month to failing to disclose information about terrorist acts.

The men are due to be tried for the outstanding charges in June.

A WINNING Postcode Lottery player bagged an eye-watering £200,000 and lost half a stone.

Alison and Tim Browne, from Breaston, Derbyshire, were gobsmacked when they discovered the lucrative jackpot.

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The couple were one of three households who scooped the windfall in the Postcode Lottery Millionaire Street draw last week.

Mum-of-two Alison said their jackpot has seen her drop half a stone within a week due to lack of sleep.

“But it’s good! You have dreams that you have won lots of money, but then you wake up and think, ‘Damn, it’s a dream’,” she said.

“This is how I felt every night this week when I managed to get to sleep at 3am. Then I woke up and thought, ‘No, it’s not a dream!’

“Never in my wildest dreams did I think we would win this much.”

Tim admitted he didn’t even enter the competition – but his wife unknowingly had.

He said: “I can’t believe it. I’m just glad she didn’t phone to tell me the amount when I was driving!

“I didn’t even know she was doing People’s Postcode Lottery, to be honest.”

An overjoyed Alison added: “It’s a fantastic feeling and I can’t stop smiling. But we’re going to have a big, big party on the street.

“It’s wonderful. We’ve known George and Paul for over 30 years and we get on really, really well.

“It’s a lovely street, lovely neighbours, and a lovely place to live.

“I don’t know what to think. This is life-changing, it really is.”

The pair are plan to splurge the cash on a lavish holiday to celebrate their 40th anniversary.

And, they will finally be able to tick riding on the iconic Orient Express off their bucket-list.

Tim said: “It means everything. We always wanted to do the train trip across the Rockies in Canada and also the Orient Express.

“There’s lots of trips that we’ve never done and have never been able to do. And now we’ll be able to do them and that’s fantastic.”

Alison, a freelance school music exam coordinator, said: “We’ve been married 43 years now, but our 40-year anniversary fell during lockdown so we weren’t able to celebrate properly. Now we can do that.”

The couple share a son Matthew, who is autistic, and hailed the win for “the security this will bring him”.

Meanwhile, older son James, joked: “I’ll be happy with a pint in Spoons. It’s £6 a pint!”

Tim revealed he also dreams of welcoming a new puppy into the family to keep Pointer Finlay company.

The musician told how a new Gore-Tex waterproof jacket wouldn’t go a miss either.

Alison laughed: “If we get another dog we’ll need a house with a bigger garden.

“My son and daughter-in-law don’t want us to get another dog because they have to look after them if we go away.

“We’re all going away to Wales on holiday together next week so we can celebrate there.”

It comes as another lucky player who scooped a life-changing Postcode Lottery prize refused to believe she had won – until a key sign revealed it was fate.

Meanwhile, another punter doubled their £200,000 Postcode Lottery win by using a clever trick – make sure you don’t miss out.

Jo Deighton from Shoreham, West Sussex, was gobsmacked when she scooped nearly an eye-watering quarter of a million pounds.

Elsewhere, one Brit who bagged a £410,000 jackpot told how no one believed her – not even her husband.

Leyla Eaton’s jaw dropped after discovering she’d scooped the eye-watering prize.

The mum-of-two entered when she was struck by a “strong feeling” a huge windfall was coming her way.

How to play the People’s Postcode Lottery?

For just £12 a month, players can sign up through the official website to have a chance of winning millions of pounds.

Once signed up, players are automatically entered into every draw and prizes are announced every day of each month.

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Tickets play for the Daily Prize, worth £1000 and revealed every single day.

Tickets could also win a jackpot of £30,000 for Saturday and Sunday’s Street Prize draws.

People’s Postcode Lottery also offers a £3million Postcode Millions draw each month – where your ticket plays for a share of the cash prize fund.

Winners are notified by email, text, post, or phone call, depending on the prize they win.

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Jackpot winners are visited by the lottery team in person.

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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

The Tony Blair Institute, the non-profit organisation set up by the former UK prime minister, fell to a $2.2mn loss last year after a sharp increase in operating costs overshadowed a 20 per cent rise in revenues.

The institute, which advises more than 40 governments worldwide, reported a 60 per cent jump in operating expenses to $152.7mn, according to 2023 accounts published on its website.

TBI said the jump in expenditure was driven by rising staff costs and investment in regional expansion. The annual loss followed a $16.8mn surplus in 2022. Sales for 2023 came in at $145.3mn.

The think-tank makes most of its income from deploying its roster of advisers, which includes former Finnish premier Sanna Marin, to counsel governments on areas ranging from strategy to policy and technology.

It employed an average of 719 staff during 2023, up from 514 in 2022. At the end of last year, it had 874 employees.

Sir Tony Blair, who serves as the institute’s executive chair, often acts as the first point of contact for leaders seeking advice. He then sends in teams to work with the governments concerned.

TBI made $125.7mn in sales from “advisory” work in 2023, the accounts show, while its “strategy and partnerships” and “policy” divisions reported revenues of $10.7mn and $8.1mn respectively during the period.

Blair left Downing Street in 2007 after a decade in power and after becoming a hate figure for some in the Labour party over his role in the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Since leaving Number 10 he has dispensed advice to foreign leaders, some with poor human rights records, and become an advocate for the transformative power of artificial intelligence.

TBI’s work in advising Saudi Arabia’s leader Mohammed bin Salman in particular has attracted criticism because of the crown prince’s alleged role in the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. Prince Mohammed has denied any involvement.

In an interview with the Financial Times in 2023, Blair insisted the desert kingdom was embarking on “enormous” social and economic reforms and insisted that TBI did turn down some foreign business.

“We have said no and we’ve pulled out of places,” he said. “I won’t say where, but we have left places when we decided they weren’t going in the right direction.”

While Blair does not take a salary from the institute, TBI’s other four directors were paid a total of $2.02mn last year, up from $1.1mn in the previous 12 months.

The highest-paid director took home $1.26mn, almost double what they received in 2022. The director is not named in the accounts.

TBI said the institute “took the decision to invest in expansion and run a small deficit, given our strong reserves and cash position”.

“As a not-for-profit, there will be years where our investment exceeds our income, especially when we have produced strong surpluses in recent years,” it added.

THERE’S less than a week to go until this year’s Budget, leaving many people wondering what the Government will announce.

The Budget gives an update on the government’s economic plans, which are based on official forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).

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It also gives Chancellor Rachel Reeves the chance to update Parliament on the government’s tax and spending plans for the next year.

Labour’s manifesto promise ruled out hikes to VAT, income tax rates and national insurance in line with its pledge to help “working people”.

The Government has so far refused to rule out several big tax changes, including a council tax reform and new pension rules.

Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer’s warning that the Labour Party’s first Budget in more than a decade “is going to be painful” has left many wondering what could be announced.

Here we take you through what could be in store.

Income tax

Experts suggest that Rachel Reeves could extend the “stealth” freeze on income tax thresholds for another two years.

The personal allowance, which is the amount that people can earn before they need to pay income tax, is frozen until 2028 but the Chancellor could extend it in next week’s Budget.

As worker’s wages rise in line with inflation this could drag thousands of people into higher tax brackets through fiscal drag.

Government sources have said that doing so would not breach Labour’s general election manifesto, which promised not to increase the rate of income tax.

The move could bring in as much as £7billion a year from 2028 onwards.

Capital gains tax

Another rumour is that Labour will make changes to capital gains tax in its Budget.

Capital gains tax is charged on the profit you make when you sell something that has increased in value.

Sir Keir Starmer has ruled out charging capital gains tax for first-time buyers, which is exempt under the current system.

Experts now predict that the rate charged for higher-rate taxpayers selling a second home will remain at 24%.

But the 20% tax when selling shares or other valuable assets such as paintings or furniture could be increased.

This move may not affect basic-rate taxpayers, who currently pay 10pc, although a change to their thresholds has not been ruled out.

The Government may also alter the current threshold at which capital gains tax is due.

At the moment the first £3,000 you make in profit for selling an item that has increased in value is tax-free.

But this threshold has been reduced several times by the previous Conservative government.

First from £12,300 in 2022-23, then to £6,000 in 2023-24.

Inheritance tax

The prime minister and chancellor could make multiple changes to inheritance tax, which currently has several exemptions and reliefs.

Inheritance tax is currently charged at 40% on the property, possessions and money of someone who has died if they are worth more than £325,000.

Fewer than one in 20 estates currently pays death duties as many estates fall below this threshold.

But the tax raises about £7 billion a year for the Government.

There are several exemptions and reliefs which mean you do not need to pay inheritance tax, including gifts or giving to charity.

It is thought that changes to several of these rules are being considered.

For example, gifts which are given less than seven years before you die may be taxed.

There are also exemptions if you leave land or pasture which is used to rear animals or to grow crops through agricultural relief.

It is not yet confirmed what changes will be made in the Budget on 30 October.

Employer national insurance contributions

Experts have suggested that the Chancellor could impose national insurance on employers’ pension contributions in the Budget.

Doing so could raise £15.4 billion, which would help to plug a £40billion funding gap in the public finances.

Employers currently pay national insurance for post workers earning more than £9,100 a year.

The amount they pay is equivalent to 13.8% of the employee’s earnings above this figure.

For an employee earning £30,000 the employer would pay around £2,884.20 in national insurance.

Former pensions minister Sir Steve Webb said that if the government put up the national insurance rate by 1% it could raise an extra £8 billion a year.

But he warns that it could leave millions of workers with lower wages and less generous pensions.

If an employer has to pay more tax then their costs will go up, so they would need to save money elsewhere.

They may do this by giving employees smaller pay rises or by reducing the amount that they pay into employees’ pensions.

Sir Steve said: “Changing national insurance contributions could leave hundreds of thousands of people with a poorer retirement.”

Pensions

The Government has so far failed to rule out changes to the lump sum you can take out of your pension without paying tax.

At the moment retirees can withdraw up to 25% of the total value of their pension tax-free, up to a maximum of £268,275.

But Labour is allegedly considering cutting the tax-free amount to £100,000 in a move which could raise around £2 billion.

It is not yet clear how this would work.

Another option being considered is to charge inheritance tax on pensions.

At present pensions are not considered to be part of your estate when you die, which means that you do not need to pay IHT on them.

But some suggest that Labour could change this in a move which could leave grieving families tens of thousands of pounds worse off.

Stamp duty

Stamp duty land tax is due if you buy a property or a piece of land which is worth more than a certain price in England and Northern Ireland.

In 2022 the rate at which people start to pay it was increased from £125,000 to £250,000 for second-steppers.

Meanwhile, for first-time buyers, it rose from £300,000 to £450,000.

A discounted rate on property purchases of up to £625,000 was also introduced.

But these higher thresholds are only due to last until March 31 2025, after which point they will return to the original levels.

So far Labour has not committed to extending them.

If the higher thresholds are not extended then it could mean first-time buyers are slapped with tax bills which are £15,000 higher than before.

Cash ISAs

Savers have been rushing to open a cash ISA before 30 October to protect themselves from any tax surprises which could be announced in the Budget.

Cash ISAs are a tax-free way to save towards your financial future or invest in the stock market.

Every tax year you can save up to £20,000 in one account or split your allowance across multiple accounts.

The tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April.

You can only pay into one Lifetime ISA in a tax year and the maximum amount you can deposit is £4,000.

There is no limit on how much cash you can stash away over your lifetime.

Meanwhile, savers can be forced to pay tax on their nest eggs if they go over the personal savings allowance.

Basic-rate taxpayers can earn up to £1,000 in interest before they need to pay tax on their savings.

Higher-rate taxpayers can earn up to £500 in interest, while additional-rate taxpayers get no allowance.

But The Resolution Foundation, a think tank, has previously suggested that the government should slash the amount that can be saved into an ISA to £1,000.

They argue that by not having a cap the accounts mostly benefit those with lots of disposable income.

Alcohol duty

It has been reported that the Chancellor is considering increasing alcohol duties in the Budget.

Rachel Reeves has not ruled out pushing up the tax on spirits, beer and wine, which would raise an extra £800 million next year.

Alcohol duty is charged on all drinks which are more than 1.2% ABV strength, either at the point of production or when they are imported.

Usually, alcohol duty rises each year in line with inflation unless the Chancellor chooses to freeze it.

Although inflation is set to hit 2% next year, industry sources have said that alcohol duties could be pushed up to more than 6%.

But higher taxes could mean higher prices, which could deter drinkers and cause them to buy less.

Fuel duty

Drivers could be hit in the pocket if Labour decides to make changes to fuel duty in the Budget.

Fuel duty rates have been frozen since 2011-12.

It was cut by a further 5p in 2022 by the Conservatives in response to soaring fuel prices at the start of the war in Ukraine.

The RAC has predicted that the 5p cut could be scrapped, which could increase the cost of filling up a tank by an average of £3.30.

Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing money-sm@news.co.uk.

Plus, you can join our Sun Money Chats and Tips Facebook group to share your tips and stories

A TINY town in Europe looks like it’s been plucked from a fairytale, with a winding river and colourful castle.

Český Krumlov in Czechia is not too far away from the Czech Republic‘s capital city, Prague.

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Its historical charm is abundantly clear throughout, with its Renaissance architecture harking back hundreds of years.

And travel expert Maryanne Sparkes from European Waterways has explained why autumn might be the perfect time to visit the city.

She said: “If you’re searching for fairy-tale charm this Halloween, look no further than Cesky Krumlov!

“This enchanting town, with its winding streets and medieval architecture, offers a Halloween experience that feels straight out of a storybook.

“During this festive season, Cesky Krumlov hosts celebrations filled with costume contests, ghost tours, and themed events at the castle.”

Krumlov Tours operates a nighttime ghost tour where visitors will hear ghost stories while passing some of the city’s best monuments like the Renaissance town hall, a gothic church and the castle courtyard.

There’s also Český Krumlov Castle, an imposing building that towers over the city and dates back to the 13th century.

Nowadays, it is preserved with its original layout, structure, interior installations and architectural detail.

Its website claims it is “one of the most important monuments in Central Europe“.

The castle has stunning views over the old town and provides a glimpse into what life would have been like for the Bohemian Aristocracy all those years ago.

A unique baroque theatre is located inside the castle and is described as “the best preserved Baroque theatre in Europe”.

The theatre still has its original building and with an orchestra pit, stage, machinery and sets.

Because of its age, the theatre is only used twice for public shows, when an opera is performed by candlelight. 

Local businesses also host Halloween-themed events and activities like costume parties and pumpkin carving.

The city becomes even more picturesque thanks to the vibrant autumn colours.

If you don’t have time to visit this autumn, the Czech city also comes into its own over summer during the annual Five-Petalled Rose festival.

The celebration takes part in the weekend closest to the summer solstice.

Period music is performed throughout the old town and historical sword fights can also be seen.

Jugglers and jesters also perform, while jousting competitions and horsework displays also take place.

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Visitors can play period games, or simply have something to eat and drink from the many market stalls while taking in the festivities.

With pints in the town costing on average around £1.50, it’s certainly an affordable option.

Linz Airport in Austria is the nearest airport to Český Krumlov, with train journeys between the two taking 70 minutes.

Ryanair runs a direct service between London Stansted and Linz Airport, with return fares starting from £41 in December.

Alternatively, direct buses run from Prague where return flights can be booked from the UK.

A night for two in the town will set you back around £30.

Earlier this year, the mayor of Prague revealed they want to crack down on pub tour crawls at night.

Meanwhile, these six European holiday hotspots are yet to be discovered by Brits.

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As Boeing’s latest chief executive, Kelly Ortberg’s job was never going to be easy. On Wednesday, it got harder still.

That morning, Ortberg had faced investors for the first time, telling them that ending a debilitating strike by Boeing’s largest union was the first step to stabilising the plane maker’s business.

But as the day wore on, it became clear that nearly two-thirds of the union members who voted on the company’s latest contract offer had rejected it. The six-week strike goes on, costing Boeing an estimated $50mn a day, pushing back the day it can resume production of most aircraft and further stressing its supply chain.

The company that virtually created modern commercial aviation has spent the better part of five years in chaos, stemming from fatal crashes, a worldwide grounding, a guilty plea to a criminal charge, a pandemic that halted global air travel, a piece breaking off a plane in mid-flight and now a strike. Boeing’s finances look increasingly fragile and its reputation has been battered.

Bank of America analyst Ron Epstein says Boeing is a titan in a crisis largely of its own making, comparing it to the Hydra of Greek mythology: “For every problem that’s come to a head, then [been] severed, more problems sprout up.”

Resolving Boeing’s crisis is critical to the future of commercial air travel, as most commercial passenger aircraft are made by it or its European rival Airbus, which has little capacity for new customers until the 2030s. 

Ortberg, a 64-year-old Midwesterner who took the top job three months ago, says his mission is “pretty straightforward — turn this big ship in the right direction and restore Boeing to the leadership position that we all know and want”.

Resolving the machinists’ strike is just the start of the challenges he faces. He needs to motivate the workforce, even as 33,000 are on strike and 17,000 face redundancy under a cost-cutting initiative.

He must persuade investors to support an equity raise in an industry where the returns could take years to materialise. He needs to fix Boeing’s quality control and manufacturing issues, and placate its increasingly frustrated customers, who have had to rejig their schedules and cut flights owing to delays in plane deliveries.

“I’ve never seen anything like it in our industry, to be honest. I’ve been around 30 years,” Carsten Spohr, chief executive of German flag carrier Lufthansa, said this month.

Eventually, Boeing needs to launch a new aircraft model to better compete with Airbus.

“If Kelly fixes this, he is a hero,” says Melius Research analyst Rob Spingarn. “But it’s very complex. There’s a lot of different things to fix.”

Ortberg started his career as a mechanical engineer and went on to run Rockwell Collins, an avionics supplier to Boeing, until it was sold to engineering conglomerate United Technologies in 2018.

His engineering background has been welcomed by many who regard previous executives’ emphasis on shareholder returns as the root cause of many of Boeing’s engineering and manufacturing problems.

Longtime employees often peg the shift in Boeing’s culture to its 1997 merger with rival McDonnell Douglas. Phil Condit and Harry Stonecipher, who ran Boeing in the late 1990s and early 2000s, were admirers of Jack Welch, the General Electric chief executive known for financial engineering and ruthless cost cuts.

Condit even moved Boeing’s headquarters from its manufacturing base in Seattle to Chicago in 2001, so the “corporate centre” would no longer be “drawn into day-to-day business operations”.

Jim McNerney, another Welch acolyte, instituted a programme to boost Boeing’s profits by squeezing its suppliers during his decade in charge. He remarked on a 2014 earnings call about employees “cowering” before him, a dark quip still cited a decade later to explain Boeing’s tense relationship with its workers.

Ken Ogren, a member of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751, says managers at Boeing often felt pressured to move planes quickly through the factory.

“We’ve had a lot of bean counters come through, and I’m going to be in the majority with a lot of people who believe they’ve been tripping over dollars to save pennies,” he says.

Dennis Muilenburg headed the company in October 2018, when a new 737 Max crashed off the coast of Indonesia. Five months later, another Max crashed shortly after take-off in Ethiopia. In total, 346 people lost their lives.

Regulators worldwide grounded the plane — a cash cow and a vital product in Boeing’s competition with Airbus — for nearly two years. Investigations eventually showed a faulty sensor triggered an anti-stall system, repeatedly forcing the aircraft’s nose downward.

Boeing agreed in July to plead guilty to a criminal charge of fraud for misleading regulators about the plane’s design. Families of the crash victims are opposing the plea deal, which is before a federal judge for approval.

The manufacturer’s problems were compounded by Covid-19, which grounded aircraft worldwide and led many airlines to hold off placing new orders and pause deliveries of existing ones. Boeing’s debt ballooned as it issued $25bn in bonds to see it through the crisis.

Regulators cleared the 737 Max to fly again, starting in November 2020. But hopes that Boeing was finally on top of its problems were shattered last January, when a door panel that was missing bolts blew off an Alaska Airlines jet at 16,000 feet.

‘We’ve had a lot of bean counters come through, and I’m going to be in the majority who believe they’ve been tripping over dollars to save pennies’

While no one was injured, the incident triggered multiple investigations and an audit by the US Federal Aviation Administration, which found lapses in Boeing’s manufacturing and quality assurance processes and led to an uncomfortable appearance by then chief executive Dave Calhoun at a Senate subcommittee hearing.

The company also has struggled with its defence and space businesses. Fixed-price contracts on several military programmes have resulted in losses and billions of dollars of one-off charges. Meanwhile, problems with its CST-100 Starliner spacecraft resulted in two astronauts being left on the International Space Station. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon vehicle will be used to return them to Earth early next year.

Boeing’s stumbles have resulted in loss of life, loss of prestige and a net financial loss every year since 2019. On Wednesday, it reported a $6bn loss between July and September, the second-worst quarterly result in its history.

One of Ortberg’s first big moves as chief executive was to move himself — from his Florida home to a house in Seattle. He told analysts that Boeing’s executives “need to be on the factory floors, in the back shops, and in our engineering labs” to be more in tune with the company’s products and workforce. Change in Boeing’s corporate culture must “be more than the poster on the wall”, he added.

His approach represents a shift from his predecessor Calhoun, who was criticised for spending more time in New Hampshire and South Carolina than in Boeing’s factories in Washington state.

Bill George, former chief executive at Medtronic and an executive fellow at Harvard Business School, says Ortberg is doing a “terrific job” so far, particularly for moving to the Pacific Northwest and pressuring other itinerant executives to follow.

“If you’re based in Florida, and you come occasionally, what do you really know about what’s going on in the business?” he says, adding that Boeing has “no business being in Arlington, Virginia”, where the company moved its headquarters in 2022.

Scott Kirby, chief executive at one of Boeing’s biggest customers, United Airlines, told his own investors this month that he was “encouraged” by Ortberg’s early moves, adding that the company suffered for decades from “a cultural challenge, where they focused on short-term profitability and the short-term stock price at the expense of what made Boeing great, which is building great products”.

“Kelly Ortberg is pivoting the company back to their roots,” he said. “All the employees of Boeing will rally around that.”

But Ogren of the machinists’ union cautions that previous commitments to culture change have been hollow. “You’ve got people at the top saying, ‘We’ve got to be safe, oh, and by the way, we need these planes out the door’ . . . They said the right thing. They didn’t emphasise it, and that’s not what they put pressure on the managers to achieve.”

When workers eventually return to work — Peter Arment, an analyst at Baird, expects the dispute to be resolved in November — Ortberg wants better execution, even if it means lower output. “It is so much more important we do this right than fast,” he said.

The company had planned to raise Max output from about 25 per month before the strike to 38 per month by the end of the year, a cap set by the FAA. It will not reach that goal and Spingarn, the Melius analyst, says the strike will probably delay any production increase by nine months to a year. Some workers would need retraining, Ortberg said, and the supply chain’s restart was likely to be “bumpy”. The manufacturer also has established a quality plan with the FAA that it must follow.

Boeing also needed to launch a new aeroplane “at the right time in the future”, Ortberg said. Epstein of BofA called this “one of the most important messages” from the new chief executive, likely “to reinvigorate the workforce and culture at Boeing”.

In the meantime, Boeing will continue to consume cash in 2025, having burnt through $10bn so far this year, according to chief financial officer Brian West. Spingarn says that investors may be disappointed in the cash flow at first, but adds that “fixing aeroplanes isn’t one year, it’s three years”.

For all the challenges, Ortberg has the right personality to turn Boeing around, says Ken Herbert, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets.

“If he can’t do it, I don’t think anyone can.”