BOEING Co, the world's second-largest commercial aircraft maker, delayed delivery of the 787 Dreamliner until the third quarter of 2009, its third postponement in six months.
The new date, announced by Boeing yesterday in a statement, puts the Dreamliner at least 14 months behind its original schedule of May 2008.
Chicago-based Boeing had said in January it would have the 787 to its first customer, All Nippon Airways Co, in early 2009. Yesterday's delay matched the forecast of 10 analysts in a Bloomberg News survey.
Boeing has lost a quarter of its market value since postponing the 787 in October and again in January because of parts shortages and a new assembly process that relies heavily on vendors. The delays mar what has otherwise been Boeing's most successful new-plane sales campaign ever, with 892 orders valued at about US$154.3 billion.
"They weren't on-hands enough with the subcontractors," Michael Derchin, an analyst with FTN Midwest Research Securities Corp in New York, said in an interview last week. "They delegated too much and weren't on top of it enough. That was a big mistake."
The delay is the second setback for Boeing in six weeks. The company, which is also the second-largest defense contractor, on February 29 lost a US$35-billion program for US Air Force aerial refueling tankers to Northrop Grumman Corp and the parent of rival plane maker Airbus SAS.
Boeing had been the only builder of Air Force tankers for more than 50 years.
Boeing said it will now deliver just 25 planes next year, less than a quarter of what had originally been planned, and that the new schedule doesn't change its 2008 profit projections.
The first test flight is now targeted for the final three months of this year instead of later this quarter.
Talk of a third delay had swirled since March 7, when a Goldman Sachs Group Inc analyst Richard Safran said the initial powering up of the jetliner would be pushed back, likely postponing first delivery to next year's third quarter.
On March 19, JPMorgan analyst Joseph B. Nadol said Boeing had to make design changes that may further hold up the plane, citing comments from the chairman of International Lease Finance Corp, the model's biggest customer. Boeing says it had resolved issues on the center wing box.
In February, Boeing said it had reassigned some senior executives from its defense unit to work on the Dreamliner project.