The good news is that the Boeing's 787 maintenance plan has been approved by the FAA, which is a major step towards gaining overall certification for the Dreamliner. The bad news is that Air New Zealand won't be able to put it into action with its first 787-9 until early 2013, a year later than last informed and greater than two years from originally promised."BoeingAir New Zealand's first 787-9, the 135th 787 to come out of Everett, was originally expected in January 2012, but is now set for early 2013. The twin 787-9 flight test aircraft (88 & 93) will likely take to the sky about six to eight months ahead of the first delivery to Air New Zealand.confirmed yesterday a further 12-month delay could be expected with the first 787-9 aircraft to be delivered to Air New Zealand in the first quarter of 2013," the carrier said in a statement.
on December 23, 2008 8:04 PM | Reply
So if this is true, the rate of production for the 787 line is less that one airplane per week.
Existing orders at that rate would go out to 2026.
Not according to plan I suspect!
on December 24, 2008 5:04 AM | Reply
Oops!
But with current economic situation and lower traffic it is better to wait a little bit. Airlines will be able to operate profitably thank to a relatively cheap fuel.
However, the delay plus the low production rate are bad signs.
on December 24, 2008 9:06 AM | Reply
I wouldn't assume that production of model 8 is held back by entry in service of model 9. In fact, the delay may help the ramp up of the 787-8 as only having one model simplifies production.
on December 24, 2008 12:02 PM | Reply
I don't get the reference to the 135th 787 being a -9. That's under current plans? Because if Boeing is building the 135th 787 in 2013 the production ramp up is going to be awful slow.