Boeing pushed back deliveries of its new 787 again on Tuesday, meaning that the soonest it will arrive is July. The company had most recently said that deliveries would begin next month, nearly three years late, but an electrical fire on a plane in November halted flight testing and another delay has been widely anticipated.
Boeing said it expects to deliver the plane during the third quarter, which would be between July and the end of September. The new schedule has been padded in the event that anything else goes wrong, the company said.
Boeing gradually resumed flight testing in December after making an interim software fix to address the Nov. 9 fire that forced an emergency landing in Laredo, Texas, but those tests are not for the mandatory Federal Aviation Administration certification.
Even before the fire, however, production problems have led to repeated disruptions for jet, which made its first flight in December 2009.
The company said it will provide more information on its financial forecast and deliveries during its earnings conference call on Jan. 26. The revised delivery date is not expected to have a material impact on Boeing’s financial results for 2010, the company said.
Shares of Boeing Co. rose 2 percent, or $1.33, to $71.40 in early trading.
