 Boeing South Carolina finished assembling its second 787 Dreamliner, and North Charleston welcomed two more Dreamliners from Everett, Wash., to its flight line. (Photo/Leslie Burden) |
By Matt Tomsic
mtomsic@scbiznews.com
Published July 3, 2012
Boeing South Carolina rolled its second completed 787 Dreamliner from the final assembly facility to the flight line during the weekend, a company spokeswoman said.
The company’s North Charleston flight line also includes two more 787s that flew to North Charleston from Everett, Wash., Monday night, spokeswoman Candy Eslinger said. The four planes are set to be delivered to Air India, but the aerospace giant hasn’t announced a delivery date.
“This is being done because we have a limited amount of space on the Everett flight line and moving these airplanes to Boeing South Carolina frees up some space on Paine Field,” Eslinger said in an emailed statement. “In this specific case with Air India, it makes sense and is more efficient to group the airplanes together in a single location. The Air India 787s flown in from Everett to South Carolina are ready for delivery, and we are looking forward to delivering the airplanes soon, but we don’t discuss details of our delivery plans and defer to our customers to announce their own timing.”
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Adam Pilarski, an aerospace analyst, said Air India is trying to use the 787 program’s three-year delay as leverage before taking the airplanes.
“I am not privy to the details of the contract and the negotiation, but India or the government of India is trying to get as much out of Boeing as possible,” Pilarski said, adding that some of Air India’s demands — like reports of a $1 billion payment from Boeing — are childish.
“And I think that it’s action by government bureaucrats (who) do not realize how the real world works,” Pilarski said.
Boeing’s completion of its second Lowcountry-built 787 takes it halfway to its goal of finishing and delivering four 787s from North Charleston during 2012.
