KEY POINTS:
Boeing has ended weeks of speculation by announcing the inaugural flight for its new 787 jetliner will be delayed up to three months, pushing delivery of the first plane into early next year.
This is the third time the hot-selling aeroplane has been delayed, an embarrassment that has cast a shadow on the company's credibility.
"I know our credibility is ... being tested on this programme, and it is up to us to deliver on what we say we will do," said Scott Carson, chief executive of Boeing's commercial aeroplane division in Seattle, this week.
After a six-month delay announced in October, Boeing had been aiming to start test-flying the new mid-size, long-haul plane by the end of March and deliver the first one to Japan's All Nippon Airways by the end of the year.
The new schedule calls for test flights to begin by late June.
The company did not say how soon next year it believes it can start delivering the plane, which has won more than 800 orders so far.
One of the first key milestones for the first plane - turning on its power - has been delayed until early in the second quarter, said Pat Shanahan, general manager of the 787 programme.
Carson said the delay would prevent the company from meeting its ambitious goal of delivering 109 planes by the end of next year.
Boeing has outsourced an unprecedented amount of the 787's design and production to manufacturers scattered across the globe.
Workers in the company's widebody assembly plant north of Seattle have had to do a lot of so-called "travelled work" that suppliers were supposed to handle themselves.
That problem has become more challenging than others the company has faced, including a shortage of small parts and the tiny fasteners that hold pieces of the plane together.
Despite the problems, Carson said he remained confident the 787 programme was fundamentally sound.
Analysts, however, have their doubts.
Scott Hamilton, managing director of the Seattle-area aerospace consulting group Leeham Companies, said: "Boeing is not going to be able to prove it has a handle on this thing until it gets the plane into the air and is able to actually begin producing the airplane without any glitches," a point the company won't reach until the end of this year.
- REUTERS
