Business Blog: Hoover’s Business Insight Zone

The good news for Boeing: record orders in 2007, ahead of Airbus’s (also very good) numbers.

The bad news: the blockbuster 787 Dreamliner project looks to be delayed again:

Another big delay for Boeing’s 787
By Dominic Gates
Seattle Times aerospace reporter

Boeing is expected to announce this morning a further delay to its 787 Dreamliner program of at least three months, an industry source confirmed late Tuesday.

The news, first reported online Tuesday by The Wall Street Journal, could be a crushing blow to the aviation industry’s confidence in Boeing. After earlier delays forced the company in October to push out its production timetable by six months, Boeing’s leadership repeatedly assured customers and investors that it would meet the revised schedule.

What Boeing doesn’t need, if it wants to sustain its momentum, is a reprise of Airbus’s delays-upon-delays history with its blockbuster A380 program. (My take on the earlier delay is here.)

Delays like this seem to be more common — or more commonly reported — in the software industry. Given the complexity of the Dreamliner, it makes sense that the project could slip, but failing to nail down the length of the delay the first time around doesn’t reflect well on Boeing management. At some point, the story becomes less about the project itself, and more about the company’s ability to manage big projects generally.

Given the oohing and aahing over the Dreamliner, all this may be just a blip once the planes go into service. But for now, this new delay is exactly what Boeing doesn’t need.