First GE powered 787-10 to be delivered to Etihad Airways on Oct. 30

Etihad's 1st 787-10 photo by Mike Cassidy 

Etihad's 1st 787-10 photo by Mike Cassidy

Abu Dhabi based Etihad Airways will take the first 787-10 powered by GE's GEnx-1B engines on October 30, 2018.  This aircraft is ZC061 (LN 743, A6-BMA).  Three days later on November 2 United Airlines will take delivery of it's first 787-10 ZC037 (LN 763, N14001) also powered by the GE powerplants.  Boeing will also deliver one of three former 787-10 test aircraft to Singapore Airlines on November 5th.  ZC002 (LN 565, 9V-SCG) flew about 50 test flights in support of certification flight testing for the 787-10 program.  There hasn't been any announcement of the GE powered 787-10 receiving it's type authorization certificate from the FAA which allow deliveries to proceed but typically the final certification is issued a few days prior to first delivery. 

United Airlines' 1st 787-10 flying to Everett photo by Mike Cassidy

Lastly, Bloomberg is reporting that Lufthansa is talking to Boeing about an order for the 787 which would be huge.  The catch is that Boeing may have to buy their old A340s which essentially has little to 0 secondary market. Still, if Boeing were to sell the 787 to Lufthansa, it would be the third major wide body aircraft sale to the German flag carrier in the last decade (747-8I and 777-9 being the first 2) and would mean that the airline would have ordered all three of Boeing's current wide body offerings.

787 Deliveries make come back prior to 3rd quarter end. Boeing delivers 34 Dreamliners in 3rd Quarter, short by 2.

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	Number
Testing Complete	3
To be assembled in Everett	63
To be assembled in Charleston	59
Parts Arriving	6
Undergoing final assembly	6
Storage	2
Storage/Change Incorporation and Re-Work	0
Change Incorporation and Re-Work	2
Pre-Flight Prep	10
Production Testing	6
Non Customer Flight Tests	0
Ready for Delivery	0
Donation	3
Delivered	742
TOTAL	902

With the end of the 3rd quarter looming for Boeing and the 787 program, the company was able to deliver 18 787s ( 2 x 787-8 and 16 x 787-9) in September with 11 of those aircraft being delivered between Sept. 28th and Sept. 30th.  Despite the flurry of deliveries at the end of the month, Boeing delivered on 34 787s in the third quarter (4 x 787-8 and 30 x 787-9) which is 2 units short of the 36 that is expected given the current production rate.  For the year Boeing has delivered 106 787 (8 x 787-8, 92 x 787-9, 6 x 787-10).  This number is also 2 short of a delivery rate of 12 per month.  In order to catch up, Boeing will have to deliver 12.67 787s per month during the 4th quarter, a task which should be easily accomplished if it weren't for the continued issues with the Trent 1000 engines which had another issue crop up.  Of the 18 787s delivered last month, 5 were delivered directly to Hainan Airlines (though two of them are still at Everett awaiting their delivery flights, they have been contractually delivered).  Hainan took an additional 787-9 on lease from Bank of Communication Leasing (1 of 2 that the lessor had purchased). Shanghai Airlines (China Eastern subsidiary) took belated deliveries of three 787-9s after late arriving seats were installed. Eva Airway's first 787-9 leased from Air Lease Corporation was also delayed due to late seats but was finally delivered at the end of the month. Air New Zealand took their first leased 787-9 while also receiving their 12th and last direct purchased 787-9.  It's important to note that both Everett and North Charleston delivered 9 787s each but for North Charleston this certainly eases the pressure especially with the seats supplier issues hopefully a thing of the past.

On the production front the 787 rolled out 10 new aircraft while starting final assembly on 11.  This is a slightly lower rate perhaps bought down by the effects of Hurricane Florence which caused a short duration shut down of Boeing's North Charleston final assembly operations.  That facility was able to push out 4 airplanes while starting assembly on 5 airplanes.

Lastly, Boeing had just announced their orders for September with some interesting (and confusing) revelations.  First of all Boeing picked up 15 new orders including 9 x 787-9 from United Airlines along with a couple of small unidentified customers who orders 3 and 2 787-9 respectively.  China Development Bank seems to have cancelled an order for 6 787s which is an order they placed only last year.  Interestingly, Boeing classified three airplanes for Avolon and CIT as unidentified.  This is strange as they are n=ow saying that we are not going to identify customers we've already identified!  Finally, it appears that a GECAS's for 6 787-9 is now 5 but Boeing Capital Corp. shows a new order for a 787-9.  I'm thinking that GECAS transferred the order to BCC.  Boeing's order book currently stands at 1,398 aircraft of which 742 have been delivered.

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