The president of Emirates airline has warned Boeing that it is in the "last chance saloon," saying he had seen a "progressive decline" in its performance, reports BBC News.

His comments come as further reports of production problems surfaced, this time a new problem with mis-drilled holes found during the production of 737 Max jets. The problem will force Boeing to rework about 50 planes that have not yet been delivered, reported CNN February 5.

Emirates president Sir Tim Clark is a leading industry figure, and the airline is a major Boeing customer. He also told the Financial Times that Emirates would send its engineers to monitor Boeing's production lines.

In response to Sir Tim's remarks, Boeing pointed to comments its chief executive, Dave Calhoun, made last week, when he said: "We understand why [customers] are angry and we will work to earn their confidence."

"They have got to instill this safety culture which is second to none. They've got to get their manufacturing processes under review so there are no corners cut etc.," Sir Tim said. "I'm sure Dave Calhoun and [commercial head] Stan Deal are on that... this is the last chance saloon," he added.

Read More: Former Boeing Manager Would 'Absolutely Not' Fly on 737 MAX Planes

Sir Tim was preparing to send Emirates engineers to observe the production process of the 777 at Boeing and its supplier Spirit AeroSystems.

In November 2023, Emirates placed an order for 95 wide-body Boeing 777 and 787 jets, used for long-haul flights, valued at $52 billion at list prices.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has launched an investigation of Boeing's manufacturing process and barred the firm from expanding production of its popular 737 planes.

The FAA grounded Boeing 737 Max 9 planes after a fuselage panel blew out at 16,000 feet on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 January 5, forcing Alaska Airlines and United Airlines to cancel hundreds of flights.

A Joint Authorities Technical Review (JATR) was established after the March 10, 2018, crash of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max near Addis Ababa that killed all 157, and a Lion Air 737 Max that went down off the coast of Indonesia on October 29, 2018, under similar circumstances, killing all 189 aboard.

There were “an inadequate number of FAA specialists” assigned to the 737 Max’s new design and they “had inadequate awareness” of the system implicated in the two crashes, a report from the JATR released in October 2019 said.