Boeing has problems with Dreamliner again

A new production problem has apparently emerged with the Boeing Co's 787 Dreamliner. This will likely further delay the delivery of the popular wide-body aircraft, said people familiar with the matter. Boeing expects the newly discovered defect will take at least three weeks to fix, some of these people say. That means customers may not receive new Dreamliners for much of the traditionally busy summer travel season. Boeing stopped delivering Dreamliners to airlines in late May after US flight safety regulators rejected the aircraft manufacturer's proposed method of checking the jets for previously known manufacturing defects. It was the second such break in the past year. It wasn't immediately clear how the current delivery freeze would affect Boeing's Dreamliner production, but a person familiar with the matter said the company is expected to slow down its previously announced monthly production of five aircraft, while it concerns the quality problems. Boeing declined to comment. The Federal Aviation Administration FAA announced that the newly discovered quality issue does not pose an immediate safety threat. While the agency will decide whether to require modifications to the 787 aircraft that are already in service, the FAA said, "Boeing is committed to repairing these aircraft before deliveries resume." The current Dreamliner delivery stop follows an earlier five-month delivery pause from last autumn to this spring. This resulted in a traffic jam of around 100 aircraft by the end of April, many of which Boeing hoped to deliver by the end of the year. The delivery freeze was another setback for the aerospace giant, which has faced various issues in its commercial, defense and space programs over the past few years. It also chokes off an important source of money as Boeing attempts to weather the double crisis that resulted from two fatal crashes of its 737 Max aircraft in late 2018 and early 2019, as well as the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on aircraft demand.