Global Airport News

Boeing said on Friday it will alter 787 Dreamliner delivery dates for some customers but the changes will not affect the total number of planned deliveries of the plane in 2010 or 2011.

The decision comes after some customers asked for later and others for earlier delivery dates of the 787 to meet their business needs, the general manager of the programme, Scott Fancher said.

On what he called a separate issue involving the 787, Fancher said the company was inspecting the company's test fleet of 787s after identifying a problem affecting the horizontal tail. He said inspection teams were also examining all 25 horizontal tails the plane maker currently has in the factory.

"When we find workmanship issues like this it's always regrettable but this one is very manageable," Fancher said.

He said that the reshuffle of the delivery schedule would affect some aspects of production, leading to "minor adjustments to the assembly flow." This could include giving suppliers more time to improve assembly, quality and productivity, he said.

"We're not going to get into the specifics of how we've redistributed the flow but we will be adjusting delivery dates," Fancher said.