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The Chicago-based company now expects to ship less than half of the remaining 100 or so 787 Dreamliners this year
Photo: Ellen M. Banner / AP
The US aviation giant Boeing has to reduce its delivery targets due to new production defects in the long-haul 787 »Dreamliner«.
The Airbus rival announced that further inspections and repairs were necessary on a number of 787 planes that have not yet been handed over to customers.
Boeing expects to be able to deliver less than half of its currently stored 787 machines this year.
Therefore, the production of the model type will be temporarily throttled.
The US aviation authority FAA had already announced the evening before that new problems had been discovered during the already ongoing inspections of the "Dreamliner" and that Boeing would no longer deliver machines in stock for the time being.
Most recently, analysts estimated the number of these jets to be around 100.
However, it is not an acute threat to flight safety, stressed the authority.
The FAA also reserved the right to order repairs to 787 models that are already in flight.
Investors reacted nervously to the latest bad news from Boeing - with a minus of more than three percent, the company's shares were last at the bottom of the US leading index, the Dow.
Boeing has been struggling for a long time with problems due to production defects in the "Dreamliner", which are affecting deliveries of the important model.
The group is also badly hit by the consequences of the corona crisis and the debacle over its best-selling 737 Max series, which was banned from flights worldwide for more than a year and a half after two crashes with a total of 346 deaths.
Actually, Boeing had just recovered a little after the double burden of the 737-Max crisis and pandemic.
According to its order balance published on Tuesday, the company delivered 45 jets in June and thus achieved the best monthly figure since March 2019. With 33 machines, the majority were from the 737 Max series.
In the first half of 2021, Boeing has already handed over 156 aircraft to customers - that's one more machine than in the whole of last year.
The order situation of the Airbus arch-rival has also improved considerably in the past few months thanks to the re-registration of the 737 Max.
kim / dpa / Reuters