Boeing again delays 787 test flight, delivery

[December 12, 2008]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- Boeing Co. said Thursday it has further delayed the initial test flight and delivery of its highly anticipated 787 jetliner, citing the impact of a recent strike and production problems.

The Chicago-based aerospace company said Thursday it was pushing back the inaugural flight of the next-generation passenger jet to the second quarter of 2009 and the first delivery to between January and March of 2010.

The delay was the latest in a series of setbacks for the 787, which has been touted for its expected high fuel efficiency due to its construction from lightweight carbon fiber composite parts.

Last month, Boeing said it was postponing the 787 test flight -- delayed four times previously -- until next year because of an eight-week strike by Machinists' union workers that began Sept. 6. The flight had been scheduled for the fourth quarter of this year, with the first delivery slated for the third quarter of 2009.

Besides the strike, which shut down Boeing's commercial aircraft plants and cost the company an estimated $100 million daily in deferred revenue, the replacement of certain fasteners on early production aircraft also contributed to the delay, Boeing said.

"Our industry team has made progress with structural testing, systems hardware qualification, and production, but we must adjust our schedule for these two unexpected disruptions," Scott Carson, president and chief executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said in a statement.

Boeing said it was evaluating the impact of the delay on deliveries and will provide customers with updated schedules. It also said it was determining any financial impact and would incorporate that into guidance to be released later.

Even before the strike, the plane had been hampered by lengthy delays caused by production problems partly due to a reliance on overseas suppliers. Boeing has lost credibility, and billions of dollars in expected additional costs and penalties, as a result.

Boeing, the world's second-largest commercial airplane maker after Europe's Airbus, has roughly 900 orders for 787s, with the first plane scheduled to be delivered to Japan's All Nippon Airways Co.

At a meeting of airline executives in Chicago, All Nippon Airways' president and chief executive, Mineo Yamamoto, said Thursday the latest 787 delay was "very regrettable."

Under the original schedule, he said, All Nippon Airways would have received its first 787 last May. "They were supposed to be in operation by now," he said, through a translator.

Yamamoto said he expects the 787 to be 20 percent more fuel efficient than the Boeing 767s the airline currently flies, "so we cannot enjoy the cost reduction which would have been brought by the 787."

Media reports about a possible delay of the first delivery of the 787 emerged last week.

Richard Aboulafia, an industry analyst with the Virginia-based Teal Group, said: "The only thing worse than the delays has been the level of secrecy and uncertainty that surrounded this program."

Shares of Boeing slid 7 cents to $41.61 in morning trading Thursday.

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Boeing Co.: http://www.boeing.com/

[Associated Press; By DANIEL LOVERING]

AP Airlines Writer Joshua Freed in Chicago contributed to this report.

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