Boeing expects 787 suppliers to catch up and resume production by the end of the year

Boeing Co. hopes suppliers will catch up to stockouts that have caused production of its 787 jets to drop to less than five a month due to delayed parts deliveries, as it works to restore output on two key commercial programs by the end of the year.

Boeing and its European rival Airbus SE are struggling to meet strong airline demand for jets as they face supply chain and internal factory problems.

Despite strong travel demand, the concerns will cast a shadow over the Farnborough Air Show, which takes place from July 22 to 26.

Earlier this year, Boeing cuts 787 production So that “the suppliers can catch up with us,” a company executive told reporters during a tour of the 777 wide-body factory in Everett, Washington, in June.

“As we see parts supply return to required levels, our plan is to resume production of five airplanes per month again later this year,” said Scott Stocker, vice president and general manager of the 787 program at South Carolina.

Boeing executives told reporters the company is taking similar steps to improve employee feedback and production quality for the wide-body jets, which, like the single-aisle 737 MAX, fly long-haul international routes.

The planemaker has come under heightened legal and regulatory scrutiny after a door plug on a nearly new 737 MAX 9 blew apart in mid-air in January due to a missing bolt. Boeing said it would restore 737 production to around 38 by the end of the year after a sharp drop in output of its best-selling aircraft.

I called 20 of those hotels and they all said, “Sorry, we’re fully booked.”

Although the aircraft manufacturer’s wide-body sales have Start of certification flight testing Long-delayed deliveries of 777-9s and delays in the supply of seats and heat exchangers have created additional challenges for the 787 this month.

Another problem, Stock said, is With fasteners The Dreamliner grounding plan, revealed by Reuters in June, has no impact on current rates.

Stock also said Boeing had conducted an exhaustive analysis of its fleet after a Boeing employee alerted the company earlier this year that certain tests had been completed. Investigation.

“We found ourselves having to go back to the drawing board on some work that wasn’t done properly,” he said. “The investigation is still ongoing but a lot of progress has been made.”

Boeing has suspended deliveries of its 787 wide-body aircraft for more than a year until August 2022 as the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration investigates quality issues and manufacturing defects.

Despite this, the aircraft manufacturer is still considering increasing the production of the Dreamliner and set a target production rate of 10 Dreamliners per month for the period 2025-2026 at its 2022 Investor Day.

Stocker did not specify a long-term target: “We plan to increase interest rates in the coming years.”