Thursday, June 6, 2019

787 Deliveries lower in May vs. April. Boeing shifts Everett 787 deliveries to Charleston


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Number
Testing Complete3
To be assembled in Everett106
To be assembled in Charleston106
Parts Arriving6
Undergoing final assembly8
Storage2
Storage/Change Incorporation and Re-Work0
Change Incorporation and Re-Work0
Pre-Flight Prep18
Production Testing6
Non Customer Flight Tests0
Ready for Delivery5
Donation3
Delivered839
TOTAL1102

787 deliveries in May were borderline anemic as Boeing delivered only 10 787s while still rolling out 14 airplanes from their Everett and Charleston factories.  And a sign that the 737 Max woes are far from over, Boeing is now sending Everett built 787s to Charleston were they will be delivered.  This is in an apparent reaction to the continuing 737 Max mess as Boeing needs more parking space to store the 737s coming off the Renton line.

In terms of deliveries, Charleston did clear a good deal of 787 s that were crowding the flight line there but Everett deliveries plunged from 8 in April to only 2 in May.  May deliveries included 7 787-9s and 3 787-10s, including the last 787-10 flight test airplane and the only flight test airplane fitted with GE engines.  Through the end of May 2019, Boeing has delivered 839 787 (361 x 787-8, 451 x 787-9 and 27 x 787-10).




787 production continued at the 14/month pace as we saw 14 787s enter final assembly in May and 14 787s rolled out. However the flightlines are becoming increasingly crowded at both final assembly locations.In April Boeing delivered 12 airplanes and 10 in May for a total of 22 deliveries.  In those same two months Boeing rolled a total of 28 787s thus deliveries are not keeping up with production and that is concerning.  It'll be interesting to see what June's delivery rate will be as I do expect that production will continue at the current pace.

Because of the lack of parking space to store the 737 MAX airplanes that are coming off the assembly line in Renton, Boeing will be ferrying completed 787s from Everett to Charleston where final pre-delivery work and tests will be completed and the aircraft formally handed over to customers at that build site.  Boeing needs more storage space for the 737s and Everett is still has space.  However, with the storage of KC-46A and 737s it is getting quite crowded.  It is now expected that the 737 MAX won't return to the air until late this year and it will take quite a bit of time to clear the backlog that has been stored at Boeing Field, Renton and Everett.  I expect that deliveries of Everett built 787s will be made from Charleston for quite some time to come.

New 787 orders are still a little slow though the 787-10 finally landed a new customer in Air New Zealand last month for 8 x 787-10 plus 12 options on the -9/-10.  Boeing hasn't released it's May orders and delivery report yet so it'll be interesting to see if there are any other 787 orders in May.

Bloomberg did come out with a nice scoop yesterday, revealing that Boeing and China are in talks for a 100 plane widebody aircraft order which includes more 787s and 777X.  However, this potential order may not come through because of the on going trade war between Trump and China.

Lastly, I have updated my 787 production spreadsheets to reflect the firing order up to L/N 1000.  You can check out the spreadsheets by clicking on the link below:

787 Spreadsheets

1 comment:

NickSJ said...

I happened to notice that you are showing 2 American Airlines 787-8s in the assembly schedule, but they are not showing in the orders and deliveries by customer. No need to publish this.