Airline Fanatic

Boeing, speaking at their quarterly 787 program update, said today they see no further delays in production of the brand new 787 Dreamliner. A few months ago they informed the world that, like competitor Airbus, their new major model of aircraft would face a delay in delivery. So far that delay has only been six months, as opposed to Airbus’ two year delay, but the production schedule is still extremely tight. Many analysts expect Boeing to announce further delays, but so far executives are sticking to the revised schedule.

As things currently stand Boeing expects the first flight of the 787 to take place some time in the first quarter of next yea, with the first delivery model going to All Nippon Airways by the end of next year. All in all in 2008 Boeing still expects to produce 40 Dreamliners, with 109 rolling off production lines in 2009. Currently Boeing has a staggering 762 orders from 52 customers, which effectively means the plane is sold out through 2014. Now I just can’t wait to fly on this thing!

Ben Mutzabaugh of Today in the Sky has a post up about a report out of Boston stating that Hainan Airlines(which is re-branding itself as Grand China Air) will start nonstop China service from the northeastern city in 2009.  The new service would use Hainan’s Boeing 787 aircraft, so the exact start of service depends on Boeing’s delayed delivery schedule.

Grand China Air’s hub is in the southern city of Haikou, but I highly doubt they would offer nonstop service all the way from Boston to there.  A more likely situation is service from Boston (BOS) to Beijing (PEK), also a city served by Grand China.  The bottom line however is that this is not an announcement, just rumors circulated by a paper, so nothing may materialize at all.  Having said that it does seem fairly reasonable to assume that Boston would get a nonstop China flight sometime in the future.  Sit tight Bostonites!

Boeing announced today they have delayed the delivery of the first 787 Dreamliner by at least six months into November or December of 2008. The reason for the delay is continued trouble in assembling the first plane, as well as suppliers having issues obtaining the necessary parts to complete orders. With an airplane this complex and built in so many different countries among so many companies, you had to expect some form of delays to arise. If Boeing had actually managed to pull this off on time it would have been an engineering miracle.

What Boeing must do is make sure no further delays afflict the program. Airbus is introducing their own new plane, the well published A380, more than two years after it was supposed to launch. I personally believe Airbus’ delays are due to massive bureacracy in a company who’s job it is to provide jobs for French and German citizens rather than make airplanes. Boeing doesn’t have this same issue, so we shall see if they are able to overcome this delay and get those planes rolling off the line without further ado.