The good news is that the Boeing’s 787 maintenance plan has been approved by the FAA, which is a major step towards gaining overall certification for the Dreamliner. The bad news is that Air New Zealand won’t be able to put it into action with its first 787-9 until early 2013, a year later than last informed and greater than two years from originally promised.
“Boeing
confirmed yesterday a further 12-month delay could be expected with
the first 787-9 aircraft to be delivered to Air New Zealand in the first quarter
of 2013,” the carrier said in a statement.
Air New Zealand’s first 787-9, the 135th 787 to come out of Everett, was originally expected in January 2012, but is now set for early 2013. The twin 787-9 flight test aircraft (88 & 93) will likely take to the sky about six to eight months ahead of the first delivery to Air New Zealand.
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This post originally appeared at Flightglobal.com from 2007 to 2012.