Federal regulators on air safety stripped Boeing Co.
BA 3.28%
the ability to inspect and sign several newly manufactured 787 Dreamliners, as part of the intensified investigation into production problems that halted the delivery of the popular broad-body jets.
The Federal Aviation Administration has said that its inspectors, rather than the aircraft maker, will conduct routine safety inspections of four Dreamliners that Boeing has not been able to hand over to its airline customers for months while struggling with various quality declines.
The agency has long empowered Boeing to carry out the final safety notes on behalf of the FAA, allowing it to issue the airworthiness certificates needed to hand over new aircraft to airlines. The FAA said it had withheld the same authorization in previous aircraft in previous years to keep inspectors’ skills up to date.
The FAA said the decision to withhold final approval was part of a broader series of actions targeting Boeing’s 787 production issues. A spokesman said the agency could decide to have its own inspectors sign off on more Dreamliners. “We can extend the retention to other 787 aircraft if we see the need,” he said.
A Boeing spokesman said on Wednesday that the company had involved the FAA during its efforts to resume delivery of Dreamliner and that the agency would follow directions regarding final approvals as in the past. The spokesman said Boeing was “encouraged by the progress our team is making” to resume deliveries.
After delivery was halted in October, Boeing built up a stockpile of more than 80 newly manufactured, undefeated Dreamliners, according to aviation adviser Ascend. Boeing said it expects to resume deliveries by the end of March.
The wide-body aircraft have an excellent safety record and are regularly used on international routes. A person familiar with Boeing’s planning learned of Boeing’s move from the FAA in January and has already taken into account the FAA’s cancellations in its expected delivery schedule.
Among specific aircraft scheduled for final approval by agency inspectors are two Dreamliners ordered by United Airlines Holdings Inc.
United expect to receive the planes in late March or early April, a person familiar with the plans of the airline manufacturer in Chicago said this week.
The Boeing spokesman said the manufacturer would adjust its delivery plans if necessary so that it could take the time to carry out comprehensive 787 inspections, to ensure that each one met our strict engineering specifications. ‘
The suspension of deliveries has cut off a significant source of cash paid by customers as the aircraft manufacturer navigates the Covid-19 pandemic and the weak demand for world travel travels by air. Bernstein analyst Doug Harned has estimated that the decline in delivery of Dreamliner Boeing by 2020 could cost up to $ 8 billion in cash flow. He expects half of it to be recovered next year, as airlines deliver and pay the rest of the costs.
Boeing said in January that it would probably still burn cash, but that it had sufficient liquidity after borrowing billions of dollars last year. Investors’ optimism about the wider travel recovery last week helped boost its shares by 21%. The stock reached another 3.3% on Wednesday, valuing Boeing at $ 149 billion.
Although the FAA move on the Dreamliner is limited, it is similar to a move the agency took after two accidents involving Boeing 737 MAX aircraft that killed 346 people in 2018 and 2019.
The FAA has deprived Boeing of its authority to conduct the safety investigations before the delivery of MAX jets at the end of 2019. At the time, a faulty air traffic control system and production-related faults with the aircraft were under congressional and regulatory scrutiny. The FAA approved the 737 MAX last year to resume passenger flights.
The decline of Dreamliner is one of several quality issues that Boeing has experienced in its commercial, defense and aerospace programs over the past few years.
Many of the 787 quality decays involve small gaps where parts of the fuselage, or the body of the aircraft, join together. Problems have also emerged in other places, including the vertical fin and the horizontal stabilizer on the tail, according to a March 12 summary from the FAA of the agency’s regulatory action by The Wall Street Journal.
Boeing has previously encountered problems with a manufacturing process used to generate small shims – materials used to fill the small gaps where the aircraft parts are connected to each other. Such gaps can lead to premature depletion of certain parts of the aircraft, which may require extensive repairs during routine and long-term maintenance.
In its summary, the agency said it would hold on to its Dreamliner approval authority “until it is confirmed that all issues have been resolved and aircraft are compliant with the FAA-approved design.”
Write to Andrew Tangel by [email protected]
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