787 Won't Fly in 2008

(MoneyWatch)  Now that the Boeing strike has been settled, the company can refocus on exactly what the strike will mean for delivery schedules to airlines. In particular, people are watching the already delayed 787 closely. We all expected the 787 to slip, and it's now becoming apparent that the 787 won't fly until 2009, well over a year after it originally was supposed to fly. What's interesting about this delay is that they say it's only partially due to the strike. The problem is one we've heard about before in this program . . . fasteners.

Ah yes, fasteners, the bane of Boeing's existence on this project. Word is out that 3% of all the fasteners on the aircraft need to be reinstalled. That's going to be thousands of fasteners and it's going to take time. Many will point to the company's decision to outsource much of its manufacturing to other parts of the world and then put all the pieces together in Washington as the culprit here. Boeing has acknowledged that it would probably keep more of the work in-house going forward, but that's obviously not an option for this program now that we're so far into it.

So once again, this means delays for airlines. This could be good for those airlines who may not want to shell out money (or can't line up financing) for a new plane right now, but it also means they can't take advantage of the favorable fuel savings this airplane will provide. They also find themselves struggling to extend leases on existing aircraft or revising retirement plans in order to fill the gap. Hopefully this delay will be the last, but it's hard to know for sure.