Boeing puts three-week hold on 787 assembly

Boeing is in the middle of a three-week hold on assembling pieces of its new 787, the Dreamliner that Air New Zealand is scheduled to take delivery of late in 2013.

The manufacturing delay is the latest problem for Boeing's new plane. Flight tests stopped last month because of an electrical fire, and the first delivery officially slated for early next year is widely expected to be pushed back.

Boeing Co spokesman Scott Lefeber said on Monday that the 16-day hold began late last month.

He said Boeing is not asking the companies that make parts for the 787 to slow or stop production. Assembly work happens five days a week, so the 16-day hold adds up to a little more than three weeks.

"They will not stop production during this time. They will continue to work and will ship their assemblies according to the revised schedule," he said.

He said Boeing would finish revising the 787 schedule in a few weeks.

Last week Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc. said it was shifting some workers away from the 787 to work on other planes instead. Spirit makes the front of the 787 in Wichita, Kansas, and installs the electrical systems in it. The big pieces of the 787 are transported to Everett, Washington, for assembly. The company said some work would continue on the 787.

Continental Airlines was scheduled to be the first US carrier with a 787, and planned to begin flights between Houston and Auckland, New Zealand, in November next year. Those are being pushed into 2012 because of "the uncertainty of Boeing's new delivery date", Continental spokeswoman Julie King said.

Continental was supposed to get the plane in the second half of 2011. King said Continental had not yet gotten a new delivery date from Boeing.

The latest delay was reported by the aerospace site Flightglobal.com.

The Continental service to Auckland was the first Boeing 787-8 route to be announced, even though Air New Zealand was the second airline to order a Dreamliner, behind a Japanese company.

Air NZ is not expected to get its larger 787-9 planes until December 2013.

The flying time for the 11,900km trip from Houston to Auckland will be 14 hours to 14 hours, 45 minutes, depending on time of year. At present all America's non-stop services to New Zealand fly from west coast airports.

The American airline has also ordered the larger "stretched" 787-9 Dreamliner model, for which Air New Zealand is Boeing's launch customer.

The two models will have similar ranges, but the 787-8 is expected to seat 210 passengers while the 787-9 will seat up to 290, with the help of structural strengthening, a lengthened fuselage, a higher fuel capacity, and a higher maximum take-off weight.