Aviation giant Boeing will be allowed to resume deliveries of its 787 Dreamliner aircraft “in the coming days,” after the company made changes to its manufacturing process, U.S. air safety regulators announced Monday.
Deliveries of the top-selling widebody have been halted since spring 2021, but, “Boeing has made the necessary changes to ensure that the 787 Dreamliner meets all certification standards,” Federal Aviation Administration officials said.
Acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen met with safety inspectors in South Carolina last week to confirm they were satisfied with the company’s improvements, which were made to ensure they comply with standards and to identify potential risks after defects were uncovered on the plane.
“The FAA will inspect each aircraft before an airworthiness certificate is issued and cleared for delivery,” the FAA said. “We expect deliveries to resume in the coming days.”
The 787’s travails date to late summer 2020, when the company uncovered manufacturing flaws with some jets. Boeing subsequently identified additional issues, including with the horizontal stabilizer. The difficulties curtailed deliveries between November 2020 and March 2021. Boeing suspended deliveries later in spring 2021 after more problems surfaced.
A company spokesman told AFP that Boeing will “continue to work transparently with the FAA and our customers toward resuming 787 deliveries,” but did not confirm the firm had received final FAA approval.
During a July 27 earnings conference call, CEO Dave Calhoun described the company as “on the verge” of garnering approval, though he declined to give a precise target date. Earlier this month, AFP reported that Boeing had won approval to resume deliveries, but the FAA had yet to issue formal notice.
At the end of June, Boeing had 120 Dreamliner planes in inventory and was producing the jet “at very low rates,” the company said in a filing.
Copyright 2022, Agence France-Presse
