Boeing has moved three 787s for two Chinese carriers into long term storage at Everett's South Ramp while a fourth 787 awaiting change incorporation is also being stored on a runaway parking spot.
Boeing has moved ZA380 (LN 34, B-2725) and ZA382 (LN 43, B-2727) bot h for China Southern Airlines as well as ZA430 (LN 73, B-2728) for Hainan Airlines into the South Ramp and has taped and sealed the aircraft to protect them until they are ready to be delivered. ZA381 (LN 36, B-2726) had been stored on the Everett's RWY 11/29 with other 787s awaiting change incorporation and will probably be there for some time until the issues with the CAAC are resolved. There are 7 other 787s that are in production or final assembly and I am not sure if those airframes will be reallocated or will be produced for Hainan and China Southern and then stored. It seems to me that it will be the former as buyer furnished equipment such as the engines and galleys have, at this stage, been ordered and delivered or will be delivered soon to Boeing's facilities in Charleston and Everett. These items require lead time and Boeing did go ahead with production on the Chinese airframes even through the issues with China was not resolved.
On a brighter note, I received information regarding LOT Polish Airlines' 787 deliveries. The first contractual delivery of ZA270 (LN 61, SP-LRA) is tentatively scheduled for November 9th. This aircraft will remain in Everett for about 5 days for crew training before flying to Warsaw on the 14th.
Future deliveries flights of LOT's other 787s to Warsaw are scheduled as follows:
ZA271 (LN 78, SP-LRB) - delivery to Warsaw is in early January 2013 (probably contractual delivery in late December 2012)
The other three in production are to be delivered at monthly intervals during the first quarter of 2013 but they will all be waiting in Everett in storage which begs the question,why start producing them now when delivery is months away? I don't have an answer for that, unfortunately.
In production news, Charleston is starting to move faster on production out put of 787s. The 5th Charleston built 787 was moved out to the flightline within the last couple of days. This is ZA241 (LN 72, VT-ANM) for Air India. This means that Boeing has achieved a 1/month production rate on the 787s at Charleston and a solid 4/month at Everett.. During the day today, Boeing sent ZA240 (LN 65, VT-ANL) to Ft Worth for painting and ZA239 (LN 60, VT-ANK) was flown back to Charleston to finish pre-delivery test flights. It is rumored that Boeing will deliver ZA238 (LN 54, VT-ANJ) this week to Air India but there is still some uncertainty due to Air India's financing the purchases of the Dreamliner.
Boeing continues to work on the '87s at Everett that need re-work. They had recently started change incorporation on ZA504 (LN 15) for ANA and this past weekend, they moved ZA234 (LN 30, VT-ANE) to the EMC. Given the amount of re-work needed on these frames it'll be sometime around the first quarter of 2013 before this aircraft is delivered.
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7 comments:
Uresh, do you have power back yet or are you at the library again?
I got it back last night, thank you for asking.
Glad to hear that
It kinda boggles the mind how Boeing could not have seen this CAAC fiasco coming. With big projects like this, you're supposed to have all your ducks lined up in a row. To get to the point where they have 11 airframes, over 2 billion dollars worth, in the pipeline before a surprise like this pops up is hard to understand. But then again this is the same company that let Air India order 6 billion dollars worth of airframes without apparently having any money to actually pay for them with.
Uresh,
Good to hear you have power again. Might I suggest that LN 36 for China Southern be listed in red instead of purple — that way it's clear which aircraft haven't gone through change incorporation yet?
Uresh,
Glad to hear your back home.
Theat airplane, I doubt will be going through change incorporation anytime soon and I want to segregate those that are in storage due to the CAAC issue from those that are in storage and awaiting change incorporation.
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