(This Jan. 9 story has been corrected to remove a reference to the size of American Airlines (NASDAQ:) donation in paragraph 4)
By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Boeing (NYSE:) is donating $1 million to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, a spokesperson for the U.S. planemaker said on Thursday.
Boeing is joining many major U.S. companies including General Motors (NYSE:), Ford (NYSE:), Microsoft (NASDAQ:) and Meta (NASDAQ:) in donating for the Jan. 20 event.
The planemaker previously donated $1 million to the last three presidential inaugurations, including Trump’s first in 2017.
American Airlines separately confirmed on Thursday it is also donating to the inauguration, but declined to say how much.
In 2016, Trump extracted a promise from Boeing that the cost of replacing Air Force One would not exceed $4 billion, and the company has since lost more than $2 billion on the significantly delayed program to deliver two new presidential aircraft.
Boeing also faces continuing tougher oversight by the Federal Aviation Administration, a year after a door panel missing four key bolts flew off a new Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 in mid-air.
Trump’s nominee to head the Transportation Department, Sean Duffy, told Reuters last month he wanted to make sure “we have safe planes coming out of Boeing.” The FAA announced a new audit of Boeing in October. The Senate Commerce Committee will hold a confirmation hearing for Duffy on Wednesday.
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