Boeing to reassess 787 Japan delivery plans
TOKYO (Reuters) - BOEING (BA.NY)Co said on Tuesday it would reassess its 787 Dreamliner delivery schedule for the Japanese market once an ongoing strike ends, raising concern that a prolonged production halt could further push back deliveries.
Japan's two biggest airlines -- Japan Airlines Corp (JAL) and All Nippon Airways (ANA) -- have already announced expected delays in receiving the 787 jets due to a strike by Boeing machinists that came on top of an 18-month delay in the shipment of the planes.
A prolonged strike by 27,000 machinists, who walked off the job on September 6, would seriously hurt 787 development and ripple through a global aerospace industry already strained by project costs, currency volatility and a faltering global economy.
"Frankly, we do not know when the strike will end," Randy J. Tinseth, vice president of Boeing's Commercial Airplanes division, told reporters in Tokyo.
"As soon as the strike does end, our operations will normalize... we then will be able to reassess our production, deliveries and program schedule for the 787 at that time."
Boeing has had a dominant presence in Japan, with the country's airlines having bought almost all their planes from the world's biggest-selling commercial aircraft maker.
Japan's second-largest carrier ANA is also the launch customer for the Dreamliner, a mid-sized long-haul twin-jet designed to save fuel, and will be the first to fly one.
The CEO of ANA got a 5-minute standing ovation from 15,000 Boeing employees when the 787 was rolled out in Seattle last July.
But because of the production delay, ANA is now expecting to receive its first 787 in August 2009 -- 15 months later than originally planned.
To cover its capacity needs until the 787 delivery, ANA is to introduce nine Boeing 767-300ER aircraft in the 2010 and 2011 business years.
JAL, one of Boeing's most loyal customers, also said last week that it agreed with Boeing to postpone the first 787 delivery for 14 months until October 2009 and introduce a total of 11 Boeing 777 and 767 aircraft to meet its capacity needs.
The 787 production delay also means a delay in a pay-back for partners involved in the program.
Boeing has teamed up with some Japanese manufacturers for the 787 project, with Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Fuji Heavy Industries involved in the project.
Boeing Japan President Nicole Piasecki told reporters the 787 and other big manufacturing projects are complex and entail risks.
"At the end of the day this program has sold 900 aircraft. So we have every bit of confidence although the pay-back period will be longer," she said.
(Additional reporting by Tim Hepher in PARIS; Editing by Ian Geoghegan)