Boeing has issued a “cautionary note” that delivery of the first Boeing 787-8 to launch customer All Nippon Airlines may be delayed from the last quarter of the year to early 2011.
Boeing vice president and general manager 787 Scott Fancher noted that instrumentation configuration changes and the horizontal stabiliser inspections had “stacked up” and “could see [first delivery] move a few weeks into the new year”, although officially the aircraft is still on track to be delivered by the end of the year.
Fancher added that none of the issues have been related to the performance of the aircraft, which in flight test have been performing as expected. The fleet of five test aircraft has completed more than 1100 flying hours over 365 sorties.
Boeing is expected to release more information about the anticipated delivery date of the first 787 to ANA over the next few months as the flight test program heads towards maturity. It is currently not known if any potential delay in delivery to the first aircraft will have a further impact on the delivery schedule.
