Payless

 Boeing Co. again postponed the first flight of its much-delayed 787 Dreamliner due to a structural flaw that executives said was small, but which further dents the company's credibility and could hurt the new jet's future profitability. On Tuesday, Boeing said it had identified problems with the aircraft body near where the wings are attached -- a discovery that would delay test flights and delivery dates to dozens of customers for an unspecified amount of time.
Boeing's Dreamliner program was already running nearly two years behind schedule. With the plane's latest delay, it is unclear when Boeing will finally fly the 787 or deliver the airplane to its first scheduled customer, Japan's All Nippon Airways Co. In a statement, ANA chastised Chicago-based Boeing for not providing guidance on an updated delivery schedule.

The setback will likely cost the company millions of dollars in penalties and concession to customers that have ordered the plane.
"It's going to take some years of high-volume production of solidly performing aircraft to get past this loss of face," said Richard Aboulafia, an aviation analyst with the Teal Group.
Boeing has been banking on the success of the Dreamliner to help in its battle with archrival Airbus, a division of European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. Airbus, which had its own problems launching the double-decker superjumbo A380 over the past few years, is developing the A350 model to compete with the Dreamliner. Even before completion, the 787 Dreamliner, which Boeing says is about 20% cheaper to operate and a third of the cost to maintain than previous planes of its size, has been Boeing's hottest-selling commercial airplane ever. The average list price: about $178 million per plane.

Boeing's 787 program has been beset with issues. Problems with the company's global supply chain, including a shortage of certain parts, forced the company to postpone key test-flight and delivery dates at least four times since the plane made its public debut in 2007. Then a two-month strike by Boeing machinists last fall shut down the production line and stalled work at various suppliers, which pushed the date of the first flight into 2009.

Last November, during routine inspections, engineers discovered that thousands of fasteners had been incorrectly installed on the first batch of 787s, which also required time to correct.

The newer problems, says Boeing, emerged last month as engineers were conducting planned tests to assess the flexibility of the plane's wings. During checks, the team discovered signs of stress in spots that the computer model used to design the jetliner had not predicted, said Pat Shanahan, Boeing's vice president of airplane programs
As Boeing's structural engineers and computer modelers analyzed the problem, Boeing officials continued saying the plane would fly by June 30. At the Paris Air Show, Mr. Carson said that the first delivery was scheduled for the first quarter of 2010. "But we have to get through flight tests," he added.

The company said that it would reveal the date of the first flight at least a week beforehand. That amounted to a commitment to make the announcement by Tuesday, June 23 -- the day Boeing instead ended up revealing the new delay.

At the time, Mr. Carson knew the plane faced problems, but engineers believed they could be managed, he now says. "We thought we had a solution," Mr. Carson said on Tuesday's conference call. "We were of a mind that the plane could enter flight tests" and still maneuver enough in the air to make the tests productive.

The Dreamliner's latest delay comes at a particularly difficult time for Boeing because its defense division, which executives had hoped would balance out the cyclical jetliner business with about $32 billion in annual revenue, is battling Pentagon cutbacks.

The holdup could, however, carry benefits for airlines. Some will be happy to delay paying for a new plane, and even happier to receive millions of dollars in compensation payments for the lateness. But others are anxious to reap Dreamliner's widely touted benefits, including greater comfort and appeal to passengers.

"They can't keep picking a date and missing it -- the industry is depending on them," said Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. spokesman Paul Charles. Virgin has 15 Dreamliners on order that were due in 2013, and was already in compensation talks with Boeing over previous delays, Mr. Charles said. Virgin on Monday announced an order for 10 new A330-model jetliners from Boeing competitor Airbus and said it is in talks to buy Airbus's planned A350 model.

Air Canada has already vowed to pursue restitution for the earlier delays, saying in its latest annual report that it "will be seeking compensation from Boeing." A spokesman for the carrier on Tuesday declined to comment further.