For the second consecutive month, Boeing Co. delivered zero 787 Dreamliners, as defect inspections continue to delay when the aircraft can be delivered to customers.
The 787, which in March will be assembled only at the Boeing plant in North Charleston, was affected by a production problem that caused slight variations in the junction of parts of the aircraft’s fuselage.
Although Boeing says the flaws are not an immediate safety issue, it determined that it was necessary to inspect the jets and ask the suppliers of the fuselage parts to do the same.
The whole process is taking longer than expected, Chief Financial Officer Greg Smith said last month, when he warned that delays that resulted in a month of zero delivery for the 787 program in November would continue into December.
Despite the delays they caused, Smith said in a statement on Tuesday that the inspections represent a “focus on safety, quality and transparency”, and Boeing feels “confident” that it is taking the right steps for its customers and ” the long-term health of the program. “
“As we continue to navigate the pandemic, we are working closely with our global customers and monitoring the slow recovery in international traffic to align supply with market demand in our widebody programs,” said Smith.
Overall, delays in the 787 program, combined with the continued stranding of the 737 Max for much of the year and complications from the COVID-19 health crisis reduced Boeing’s deliveries for the year by about 60 percent of the 2019 total. The company delivered more than 157 aircraft in the year.
Boeing delivered 39 aircraft to customers in December, the highest monthly total since 2020.
Of these, 27 were the 737 Max model that was released by federal regulators to fly in November, after being held for 20 months after a couple of fatal accidents. American Airlines received the largest number of new Max jets, 10, followed by United with eight.
Another 11 widebodies were delivered to customers, most of them freighter models.
Max also accounted for the majority of Boeing’s 90 new aircraft orders last month. Irish airline RyanAir had announced in early December that it would buy 75 new 737 Max jets, the largest order since the aircraft’s grounding.
Another seven Max jets were sold to unidentified customers. The remaining eight aircraft were 777 freighters ordered by shipping company DHL Express.
The Dreamliner – the only Boeing jet built in South Carolina and soon to be Boeing’s only commercial aircraft with final assembly located entirely outside Washington state – has not registered new orders since March. During 2020, a total of 29 of the 787s were ordered, compared with 113 in 2019 and 136 in the previous year.
Deliveries were also well below the previous year’s total. Throughout 2020, 53 of the jets were delivered to customers, about one-third of the 158 delivered the previous year.
Dreamliner accounted for about 18 percent of total aircraft deliveries across the company in 2020. In 2019, the 787 accounted for a substantially larger share of total deliveries, almost 42 percent.
When Boeing consolidated the Dreamliner program in South Carolina in March – several months earlier than the company initially said it would make the change – inspections and rework will continue on the 787 jets completed at the Boeing plant in Everett, Wash.
This location shared the final assembly work for the 787 program with South Carolina, but Boeing decided in the fall to consolidate into one location, citing cost savings and logistical benefits that could come with it.
Since Everett will no longer build 787s after next month, this could free up space to go through the inspection and rework processes at that location more quickly.
Workers at Everett will continue to review and repair the Dreamliners that were assembled there until they have all been delivered to customers, Boeing said.
In North Charleston, Boeing workers will inspect completed jets and assemble new aircraft, but they will do so at a much slower pace. The jets will be launched at a rate of five a month, half the number set for the program in January last year and one less than what Boeing said it would be building when it announced the consolidation of the 787 in the fall.