For the past two years
Boeing has relied on its Dreamliner passenger jet, the company’s popular widebody aircraft, to deliver sales after the grounding of the 737 Max following two fatal crashes.
Now the tables are turned. The Max, the workhorse of the Boeing family of jets, is back in service and the group is filling a backlog of orders, while deliveries of the 787 Dreamliner remain halted after production setbacks.
The 787 glitches have grown to the point that Boeing has warned it may record a forward loss on the Dreamliner programme, possibly on Wednesday when the company reports second-quarter results.
But the issue raises what S&P Global analyst Christopher Denicolo called the “however-many-billion-dollar question”: why is Boeing having problems manufacturing this plane?
The Chicago-based company said this month that the majority of the more than one hundred 787s already produced will not be delivered this year — contrary to assurances made by chief executive David Calhoun in April.
Boeing also cut the wide-body jet’s production rate earlier in July to fewer than five a month, which together with the company’s warning suggests a forward loss will be declared on the programme.