787 to be Delivered as Soon as August

Boeing Co. will deliver the first 787 plane to initial customer All Nippon Airways Co. in August or September, ending more than three years of delays for the new aircraft.

The planemaker and ANA will conduct test flights in Japan in the week beginning July 4 ahead of the handover, they said in a joint statement in Tokyo today. The flights will include trips from Tokyo’s Haneda airport to Itami and Kansai airports in Osaka, and to airports in Okayama and Hiroshima.

Boeing has pledged to deliver as many as 20 Dreamliners this year after the first handover was delayed seven times by the use of new materials, engine-supply disruptions and other problems. Tokyo-based ANA, Asia’s largest listed carrier by sales, has started training pilots to fly the new planes that will help it cut fuel usage and boost services.

“The plane will allow us to fly to places we couldn’t have with similar models,” President Shinichiro Ito told reporters in Tokyo. “We aim to start flights to Europe and the U.S. by the end of March.”

ANA has ordered 55 Dreamliners, making it the biggest airline customer for the plane. The 787-9 can fly as far as 8,500 nautical miles (15,740km), compared with 5,625 nautical miles for the Boeing 767-400ER, according to the planemaker’s website.

The carrier’s order for 50 aircraft in 2004 was worth about $6 billion at list prices. Japan Airlines Co. has ordered 35.