Deliveries of new Boeing 787 Dreamliners may remain halted until end-October

Deliveries of Boeing 787 Dreamliners, which have been suspended since May, will likely remain halted until late October as the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has rejected the company’s recent proposal to inspect them, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

Boeing announced at the end of summer 2020 that it had spotted manufacturing problems on the connection of a portion of the long-haul fuselage then on the horizontal stabiliser. The deliveries had been suspended between November 2020 and March 2021, and again since the end of May 2021, the time to transmit additional information to the FAA. The FAA confirmed on 12 July that some undelivered Boeing 787s have a new manufacturing quality issue the company needs to fix before shipment.

According to the Wall Street Journal, disagreements emerged during a meeting on 2 August between representatives of the FAA and Boeing on how to check the aeroplanes already manufactured. Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said at the end of July that he had around 100 planes in stock, less than half of which would probably be delivered within the year.

An FAA spokesman said indicated in a message sent to AFP that the agency continues to engage with Boeing and will not sign off on the inspections “until our safety experts are satisfied.”

A Boeing spokesperson said the company was committed to providing full transparency with regulators and working with the FAA through the rigorous process to resume 787 deliveries.