Boeing resumes 787 deliveries after 14-month pause

A 14-month halt in Dreamliner 787 deliveries ended on August 10 with the handover of a 787-8 to American Airlines.

The halt had squeezed the finances of Boeing and completely skewered all its plans for the 777X and the 737Max.

"We have resumed 787 deliveries, following thorough engineering analysis, verification, and rework activities to ensure all airplanes conform to Boeing's exacting specifications and regulatory requirements," Being said in a statement and added, "We remain committed to maintaining transparent discussions with our regulators, customers and suppliers to ensure we continue to deliver airplanes that meet all regulatory requirements and Boeing's highest quality standards."

The commencement of delivery started weeks after Boeing CEO David Calhoun reported the imminent return to delivery of 787s had indicated the same during the company's second-quarter earnings call. The media was told then that Boeing and the FAA had completed the needed flight checks and as the company prepared to start delivering the 120 aircraft that remain in inventory. As things stand at the moment, Boeing clearing the backlog and producing the aircraft "at a very low rate". There are, however, plans for a return to a rate of five per month.

The 787 deliveries had halted in late 2020 except for the on-off deliveries that included two by the end of the first quarter of 2021 and another 12 till May when deliveries had to be fully suspended due to an FAA diktat for further documentation related to quality problems.

Boeing, in September 2020, discovered that mechanics clamped together certain components in the horizontal stabilizer with greater force resulting in technical complications. That issue further slowed deliveries as the company performed special inspections to address imperfections in fuselage skins and shimming problems within some of the airplanes' aft fuselages first discovered in 2019.