ANA deals with latest 787 delivery delay

All Nippon Airways 787. Courtesy, Boeing

All Nippon Airways, the launch customer for the Boeing 787 with two in service, said its third Dreamliner won't be delivered this month as scheduled owing to a Boeing "productivity" issue.

As a result, ANA said it will push the launch of Tokyo Haneda (HND)-Beijing 787 service from this month to mid-January. [Correction: The original post of this article wrongly stated that ANA won't start HND-Frankfurt Dreamliner flights until Jan. 31. ANA still plans to launch the route Jan. 21.] ANA launched 787 flights in October following a 40-month-delayed first delivery (ATW Daily News, Oct. 28).   

"ANA will continue urgent negotiations with Boeing to deliver the 787 as early and as close to the original schedule as possible," the Tokyo-based carrier said in a statement. "ANA extends sincere apologies for the inconvenience this will cause to customers and appreciate their understanding and patience."

Boeing said in an emailed statement, "As always we are working closely with our customer to minimize the impact and expect to deliver this airplane as quickly as possible." It added that the delay "reflects the impact to individual customer deliveries of prior adjustments to our production plans, including the need to incorporate design changes on assembled airplanes, and the additional schedule clarity that resulted from the achievement of key program milestones, such as certification and first delivery."

ANA expects to take delivery of 20 787s by the end of March 2013. The carrier has 55 of the type on order—40 -8s with a 7,650 nautical mile range and 15 -9s with an 8,200 nautical mile range.