Boeing to further delay delivery of 787

09 April 2008

New York: Boeing has announced another delay in the development of the 787 Dreamliner saying that earliest deliveries will now be made sometime late next year. The latest announcement puts the plane more than a year behind its original schedule.

Initial deliveries to launch customer All Nippon Airways (ANA) had been planned for May this year. In January, however, the delivery date was altered to early 2009.

ANA has 50 Dreamliners on order.

The first test flight of the aircraft has also been pushed back to the fourth quarter of this year instead of later in the current quarter.

Boeing also said that it would deliver only 25 planes next year, less than a quarter of the number originally planned.

Boeing has attributed the delay to "slower than expected completion of work that traveled from supplier facilities into Boeing's final assembly line, unanticipated rework, and the addition of margin into the testing schedule."