Major Correction - Boeing Delivered 1000th 787 and it was to Air Lease Corporation with China Southern Airlines as operator.

UPDATE: Ok so I got wrong again!  Dominic Gates of the Seattle Times informed me that the 1000th 787 indeed went to Air Lease Corporation who leased the aircraft to China Southern Airlines.  This means that all three airplanes were delivered roughly at the same time but the 1000th delivery went to ALC.  Sorry for the confusion!

So a couple days ago I was thrown off by an error in my spreadsheets which was caught by an eagle eyed reader of this blog. Turns out I mistakenly credited Turkish Airlines for a delivery last October when they did not take any 787 that month.  Consequently my spreadsheets were off by one and after researching the error today I made a correction to my spreadsheets.

It turns out number 1000 was delivered yesterday to Japan Airlines.  The aircraft is ZE456 (LN1059, JA882J) and has departed Everett today for Tokyo.  It fitting that the 1000th 787 delivered went to a Japanese airline as it was ANA and Japan Airlines that kicked off the 787 program with orders in 2004 (really ANA). It was also fitting that the 1000th 787 was delivered from Everett. It was Everett where the program was born, went through enormous growing pains as has been documented in this blog and finally the place where the 787 hit its stride when most of the issues that stalled the airplane development was put behind it.

Of course Boeing is still facing significant headwinds given the fuselage join issues and the inspections that they have to conduct not just on the airplanes at Everett and Charleston but also many of those that have been delivered.  But the delivery of the 1000th 787 is a noteworthy milestone for this program.

Lastly, I want to renew my appeal for insiders who can help with information on the 787 program as well as help with keeping my spreadsheets up to date.  If you can contribute, I and many who read this blog would be very appreciative.

787 Spreadsheets

Supplier issues creating 787 delivery bottleneck at Charleston.

AS I reported last week, Boeing was having issues with deliveries out of Charleston.  The flightline has been increasingly crowded as Dreamliners are rolled out of the main assembly building 88-30 and parked in every spot that is available including the Charleston Delivery Center.

A source has indicated that supplier delays are now affecting at least 6 aircraft at Charleston while another 2 are delayed at the request of customers.

The aircraft that are affected by supplier delays include Shanghai Airlines (seats), United Airlines (seats), Eva Air (seats), and ANA (engines).  Hainan Airlines has requested a delay to delivery for an unknown reason, they have four 787s in Charleston waiting delivery with another 2 at Everett which I assume may also be delayed.

A 787-9 for Air China is sitting in storage for an unknown reason.  The aircraft was assembled  over 5 months ago but hasn’t had it engines installed.

Lastly, I’ve updated the 787 firing order to reflect final assembly of line numbers 842 to 860.

Check out the spreadsheets by clicking on the link below.

787 Spreadsheets

787 Deliveries drop month over month by 11 units; Boeing 787 Monthly Review for July 2018

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	Number
Testing Complete	3
To be assembled in Everett	77
To be assembled in Charleston	65
Parts Arriving	6
Undergoing final assembly	8
Storage	1
Storage/Change Incorporation and Re-Work	0
Change Incorporation and Re-Work	3
Pre-Flight Prep	15
Production Testing	4
Non Customer Flight Tests	0
Ready for Delivery	1
Donation	3
Delivered	716
TOTAL	902

Deliveries of the 787 dropped by 11 aircraft during July as Boeing turned over 8 airplanes to their customers.  Production continues at 12/month thus the Boeing flight lines in Charleston and Everett are getting crowded as Boeing rolled out 13 787s during July as opposed to 10 Dreamliners in June while delivering 8. It should be noted that just like June 787 deliveries of 17 were an outlier I also believe that this month's anemic delivery rate is also an outlier due to the lower number of airplanes that were rolled out in June.  Through July, Boeing has averaged 11.42 deliveries in 2018 about 4 airplanes shy of the targeted delivery rate.

Boeing delivered 1 x 787-8 and 7 x 787-9.  The only notable delivery was to the 787-8 to Air Tanzania which is their first and only 787.  For the year Boeing delivered 80 787 (5 x 787-8, 69 x 787-9, 6 x 787-10).  Total program deliveries are 716 787s in total.  Of note, Boeing now has delivered more 787-9 compared to the 787-8.  This was accomplished when Boeing delivered a 787-9 to ANA which seems quite fitting given that ANA was the launch customer for both the 787-8 and the 787-9.  The company has turned over 354 x 787-8, 356 x 787-9 and 6 x 787-10.  Obviously, given the current breakdown of the backlog the number of 787-9s vs 787-8 will only grow unless there is a sudden surge in 787-8.  I believe, unless there is a major re-capitalization of the 787-8, that the smaller 787 will continue to have a decreasing share of the over all 787 order book.

Production has been stable as Boeing rolled out 13 787 in July.  I expect that most if not all these 13 should deliver in August.  

Orders were pretty good as the Farnborough Air Show gave Boeing the opportunity to make a big splash order wise.  As usual the show is dominated by narrowbody orders but Boeing did have 787 orders to announce even though some of them were already announced as MoU or LoIs.  Hawaiian firmed up their order for 10 x 787-9 with a further 10 options.  Air Lease Corp and United topped up their current 787-9 order book with 3 and 4 more respectively.  Vistara Airlines signed and LoI for 6 x 787-9 and a couple of unknown customers signed LoIs for 15 x 787-9 (one of which is a current customer).  The disappointment comes from Emirates still not finalizing their 787 orders which they announced late last year though that booking could show up (along with any other orders that were finalized since the air show) soon when Boeing releases its monthly order and delivery numbers for July in about a week.

Lastly, Boeing released it's 2nd quarter financial results last week.  The 787 deferred production cost should a decrease of $449 million from the 1st quarter of this year.  The total deferred costs has been reduced to $24.241 billion.  Additionally, Boeing increased the accounting block for the 787 program from 1,400 airplanes to 1,500 airplanes.  Thus in doing so Boeing is showing better profit margins on each 787 that they produce by spreading out the amortizing costs across a larger block of airplanes.  Overall, Boeing says that the 787 program is improving the cash flow to the company especially with the higher 787-9/787-10 mix that is currently being delivered to customers.

787 Spreadsheets