B787 delayed to Q4 2008

Implications: After four months of speculation since it first hinted at B787 production issues, Boeing today said it won't start deiveries of the airplane until late-2008. Apart from the usual "I told you so" 20/20-retrovision doom-merchants, nobody truly saw this one coming...

Analysis: Springing the biggest surprise of the past two years in the commercial aerospace industry, Boeing has today announced the B787 will not meet its delivery deadline of May 2008, due to "continued challenges" with the first airplanes.

This is an industry shocker, since Boeing has given no indication whatsoever that the fastener and software problems it had with the first airplane had spread to the rest of the production line. They have now.

The temptation to shunt the first airplane off the line and move straight on to #2 was possibly not strong enough to encourage Boeing to try to stick to its already-tight schedule. Now they have more time to get it right and resolve the "challenges", and considering the stakes, rushing would be the very last thing they should have considered.

But delivery is everything in aerospace so delays are bad news. The B787 orderbook is robust enough to soak this one up and industry and markets will be relieved the speculation over May 2008 is at an end, but it's ironic that just days before the 22-month-delayed Airbus A380 is finally handed over to its launch customer, Boeing too has to rework its schedule.