Boeing 787 news

[RoMax]

I am surprised that in your list of 787 deliveries for 2012 you do not mention Hainan: Hainan Airlines says it is expecting a first Boeing 787 delivery in September 2012.

Hmm, indeed, forgot Hainan. The reason is that the list above is a 'confirmed' list by both the airline and Boeing (internally), Hainan was not mentioned in there. But indeed, they said they expect their first in September.

[Desert Rat]

I heard rumours that THA would cancel the deal for the 787's...

Anyone else?

[RoMax]

I heard rumours that THA would cancel the deal for the 787's...

Anyone else?

Didn't hear about it yet, but I'll look for it.

btw, article in Dutch about GE certification:
http://www.flightlevel.be/11516/boeing- ... rtificeerd

[sn26567]

btw, article in Dutch about GE certification:
http://www.flightlevel.be/11516/boeing- ... rtificeerd

In English as well, on Luchtzak: viewtopic.php?p=262086#p262086

[sn26567]

LOT will introduce its Boeing 787 (the first one for a European airline) on the Chicago-Warsaw route in January 2013.

[RoMax]

As previous said, 9 787 deliveries until now:

- 7 to ANA
- 2 to JAL

Today or tomorrow Boeing will deliver another 2 B788's to JAL (bringing the total to 3 deliveries this month). See JAL topic for the new routes they'll introduce.

The next 787 that is being prepared for delivery is LN47 or JA809A for ANA, their 8th aircraft. Delivery is probably sheduled for the second half of May.
Same for the two first 787's for Air India. They undergo final preperations, delivery is probably something for the end of May.

So currently it seems Boeing will deliver 3 787's in May again (as they did in March and they'll do this month).
That'll bring the total deliveries for the 787 at the end of May at:

- 8 for ANA
- 4 for JAL
- 2 for Air India

At least if there are no new delays...

Also the first 787 build in Charleston will roll-out on friday. As it's the first 787 build overthere it will probably undergo more testing than normal. After that it will fly to Amarillo (Texas) for painting (currently there is no paint hangar in Charleston, but that may change as Boeing is planning new buildings overthere after they bought more ground around the current production plant). After painting it returns to Charleston for interior fitting and pre-delivery flight tests. It took quite long to finish this aircraft but that's quite normal as it's a brand new production line and these 787's are planned to be finished after they left FAL (unlike in Everett where rework is still needed)
This first 787 of Charleston is destined for Air India and will be delivered in June.

[sn26567]

For 'regi': BIMAN Bangladesh Airlines will receive its four Boeing 787-8 aircraft respectively in Oct 2019, Nov 2019, Jan 2020, Feb 2020. They will likely be operated on future routes to New York JFK and Sydney.

Meanwhile, a Polish newspaper has published 10 pictures of the construction of the first European Dreamliner that will be delivered to LOT: http://warszawa.gazeta.pl/warszawa/5,34 ... ecia_.html

[regi]

For 'regi': BIMAN Bangladesh Airlines will receive its four Boeing 787-8 aircraft respectively in Oct 2019, Nov 2019, Jan 2020, Feb 2020. They will likely be operated on future routes to New York JFK and Sydney.

Meanwhile, a Polish newspaper has published 10 pictures of the construction of the first European Dreamliner that will be delivered to LOT: http://warszawa.gazeta.pl/warszawa/5,34 ... ecia_.html

Thank you to be thoughtful about one of my obsessions
So 7 more years waiting to get their own equipment.
The "new B777" is not a major improvement in general service.
http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/biman.htm

4 x B787 to serve a nation that counts now about 150 million inhabitants, with a pretty large overseas expat community. That says enough...The DC-10 and A310 are still performing along the B777 ( 2 now )
At the time that the B787 will have to endure the torture of Biman service, I suppose ( read well: suppose) the DC-10 and A310 will have disappeared. And the B777's will be 7 years older...

This subject alone is good enough to keep this forum open for the next 8 years.

[RoMax]

Air Lease Corp. ordered another 8 B787-9's for lease to Vietnam Airlines. They previously ordered 4 of these. Deliveries are sheduled for 2017 and 2018. The order is worth 1,8 billion Dollar at list price.

Off-topic:
ALC is also linked to a commitment for the 737MAX, an order for 60 of the new 737's. This was leaked by "people close to the matter", both Boeing and ALC refuse to comment on this. It is expected that the order will be announced at the Farnborough Airshow in July.
Also United is linked to an upcomming big 737MAX order, worth at least 10 billion dollar. According to "industry sources" Airbus was bumped out of the order-race recently and United is now talking only with Boeing about the order.
The MAX currently has 451 firm orders, 135 commitments that are announced by the airline/lessor and 400 commitments from unknown customers.

[RoMax]

Philippine Airlines is about to buy 100 new aircraft over the comming five years. PAL once was a quite big airline in Asia before it downsized dramaticly in/after 1997. But they seem to plan a revival, including restarting routes to Europe (London, Paris, Rome, Frankfurt,...) and several other new routes (New York, Chicago,...) .

The current fleet exists of 37 aircraft of which only 7 Boeing aircraft (777 (2 +4 on order) and 747 (5) ). The rest are Airbus aircraft ( A319, A320, A333 and A343). But apparently PAL wants to change this, the new president of PAL (Ramon Ang) said they want to do more business with Boeing.
Airbus will represent the whole narrowbody fleet (about 75% of the fleet), while Boeing will represent the long haul division of the airline.

According to some Philippine sources the new flag ship of PAL will become the 748i, replacing the current 744. Ramon Ang said the A380 can only use two airports in the Philippines (Manila and Clark), the 748i can serve 5 of them. He also pointed out that the A380 is too big for PAL's business. The airline operates a business/economy configuration resulting in 644 seats for the A380 (which is to much according to Ang), the 748i would have 550 seats.

It is said that the airline is looking at 12 Boeing 787's, 4 Boeing 747-8i's and another 4 Boeing 777-300ER's. This would result in a long haul fleet (at the end of the decade) existing of 12 787's, 4 747's and 10 777's.

[sn26567]

Wow! Boeing announced 25 cancellations for the 787 Dreamliner, against only 19 new orders in 2012.

[RoMax]

Wow! Boeing announced 25 cancellations for the 787 Dreamliner, against only 19 new orders in 2012.

24 of these are from China Eastern that changed it's order from 24 787's to 45 737's. That was already announced last year, but not firmed up until this year.

[sn26567]

A Preview of LOT Polish Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner

Computer image of LOT's Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Image from LOT.


LOT Polish Airlines is using the addition of the 787 Dreamliner to their fleet as an opportunity to update their interior and livery. The airline describes the new interior as “modern and trendy yet an ethnic design inspired by tradition and famous symbols of Poland.”

Below are multiple photos showing what the new interior of the LOT’s 787 will look like. LOT will configure their Dreamliner with 18 seats in Business Class in a 2-2-2 layout, 21 seats in premium economy in a 2-3-2 layout and 213 seats in economy in a 3-3-3 layout.

Premium economy


Business


Economy


LOT also announced that they plan to use the 787 Dreamliner on their Chicago to Warsaw route starting in January 2013.

Source: LOT and Airline reporter

Personal note: LOT's business class doesn't look as comfortable as Brussels Airlines' one.

[RoMax]

LN66 rolled out of FAL on the 4th of June, this was already known as a milestone aircraft as it would be the first one that wouldn't have to go through a modification center after FAL. They succeeded in this, though small works remain, about 300. That's still good (as these are really small jobs that can be done outside the buildings), tough 100 more than planned by Boeing. But when you compare it with the 6000 jobs that had to be done on the early 787's after they left FAL...

The aircraft (for ANA) left the FAL with engines and interior installed, this is quite new for the 787 program and a big milestone. The last work will be finished quite soon after which test flights can start. But ANA has quite some 787's that are almost ready for delivery (4-5) that could be delivered shortly after eachother.

This month Boeing may deliver up to 8-9 B787's. 4 for ANA (or even 5 if they work quickly, but I suppose 4 will be it... ), 3 for Air India (these are ready for delivery, but wait for the final 'yes' from the Indian government about the compensation deal) and one for Qatar Airways.

[sn26567]

All Nippon Airways switches orders for 4 Boeing 787-8s to the larger 787-9 to give "greater flexibility as it expands its international route network".

The revised model split is 36 787-8s and 19 787-9s (previously 40 787-8s and 15 787-9s).

[sn26567]

Lufthansa has taken delivery of their 2nd Boeing 747-8I over the weekend.

[sn26567]

Air India's 787s grounded

Ready for delivery are three Boeing 787s, the subject of a very serious dispute between the aircraft manufacturer and government owned Air India. Air India has 27 Dreamliners on order. The delivery delay is officially over compensation by Boeing due to production problems with the aircraft which is four years late. However ANA and Japan Airlines seem to have resolved their recompense with regard to the tardy arrival, as has Qatar Airlines, whose first plane is now back from Farnborough at Seattle getting ready for formal acceptance.

History shows that nothing moves very quickly in India. Government spokesmen have hinted that they expect to have resolved the problem by the end of the month. This might be a shade optimistic.

Source: BTNews

[RoMax]

These aircraft are all 3 waiting for almost 2 months completely finished. They moved 2 of them to Charleston (where the 3rd was, the first produced in Charleston) to free up space in Everett.

The responsible ministry in India is a mess...

[sn26567]

It's not yet the end of the tunnel for the 787. After all the problems that led to a 3-year delay, now a part of the existing fleet is grounded, at least by ANA. The Japanese airline grounded 5 of its 11 Dreamliners after tests revealed a risk of corrosion in a component of the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines (a gearbox supplied by Hamilton Sundstrand of the US).

Three of the aeroplanes have been fixed and are flying again. The other two are waiting for parts from Rolls-Royce and could be out of action for a few weeks.

17 Trent 1000 engines were built with a gearbox made using process that led to corrosion. 8 of these went to ANA, 9 to Boeing.

Japan Airlines, which has four Boeing 787s in its fleet, uses alternative engines built by General Electric and therefore does not face problems similar to those affecting ANA.

[RoMax]

Not unusual for new engines, but I assume RR is not really happy with this after they also faced problems with their A380-engines.
Luckily it's a rather small problem only affecting a 'small' amount of engines that are in-service.

what I'm more 'worried' about is the fact that tough production is running quite smooth with more and more 787's that don't need rework exiting the FAL and paint hangars, the amount of deliveries seems to slow down even. Several 787's are on the flightline for pre-flight but already for quite some time no test flights were performed. So far only 1 787 was delivered this month (the 11th for ANA) and it seems they will not deliver another one this month.

I hope August will be better. Normally it will with some more ANA deliveries (at least if Boeing starts to perform B1 flights on several ANA-birds waiting at the flightline), the first for Qatar (is getting some interior finishing), the first for Ethiopian (is being painted) and hopefully finally the first 3-4 for Air India.