Air India expects further delay in Dreamliner delivery

National carrier Air India expects deliveries of the 787 Dreamliner jet from Boeing Co to be further delayed because of a recent change in the US company's global delivery schedule, a senior executive said.

"We now expect to get the Dreamliner only in the October-December period, instead of by July, as was earlier expected," the executive, who didn't want to be named, told Dow Jones Newswires. He said Boeing hasn't formally informed the airline of a delay yet.

A Boeing spokeswoman in India separately said a revised delivery schedule for the Dreamliners will be released on January 26, during a Boeing earnings call. She declined to elaborate.

Boeing said it now plans to deliver its first Dreamliner sometime in the third quarter this year. The Dreamliner programme is already three years behind schedule, after being pushed back several times due to various technical issues.

The latest setback - the seventh official delay - for the programme comes more than two months after Boeing halted flight testing across its fleet of six test planes following an in-flight electrical fire and subsequent emergency landing. The first Dreamliner delivery had been expected to be made to Japan's All Nippon Airways in February.

Air India bought 27 Dreamliners as part of a US$15 billion 111 aircraft order to Boeing and its rival Airbus in 2005. According to the initial delivery schedule, Air India should have received 20 Dreamliners by now.
(Source:www.cargonewsasia.com)