Aviation
Boeing struggles with 787 production bottlenecks
SEATTLE/NORTH CHARLESTON – A 787 that rolled out of Boeing’s factory in Everett, Washington, in January was hailed as an important milestone: the first Dreamliner built at a rate of 10 a month, the fastest for a twin-aisle jet.
But some employees who work on the aircraft are calling into question Boeing Co’s (BA.N) ability to sustain that pace. They say the two factories that assemble the 787 are struggling to cope with a ramp-up in production that started late last year, and a huge backlog of unfinished work threatens to slow output.
Boeing’s plant in North Charleston, South Carolina, cannot finish thousands of work orders and is sending pieces to the larger plant in Everett to be completed so that the company can maintain its 10-a-month rate, according to four employees who spoke on condition of anonymity. A work order can be as simple as attaching a part or as complex as installing a duct system.
A senior employee in Everett said the problem is particularly acute with the jet’s complex wiring: fuselage sections were arriving from North Charleston with large bundles of wires that were not connected properly.
The South Carolina workers have the skills to produce the plane correctly “but there are not enough of them to match the rate increase,” the senior employee said. “They can’t keep up.”
Boeing said it is aware of the bottlenecks and is working to fix the problems. The company has hired hundreds of contract workers in South Carolina, and created special teams in Everett to inspect the planes and tackle the extra tasks, known as “traveled work” because it was moved from South Carolina to Everett.
“While we try to minimize it, traveled work is something we deal with in all production programs,” said Boeing spokesman Marc Birtel. “The 787 program remains on track to meet its delivery commitments in 2014 and we are producing 787s at a rate of 10 per month as planned.”
The backlog, first reported in the Seattle Times, comes as the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has launched an audit of Boeing’s factories this month. The FAA said the audit was regularly scheduled and declined to comment further.
Boeing said the audit was routine, performed about every two years at multiple facilities, and required for Boeing to maintain its FAA certification to produce all of its airplanes. It was not focused on the South Carolina plant, Boeing said.
MAINTAINING OUTPUT
Boeing’s ability to churn out the Dreamliner is crucial to its financial performance this year as the company is relying on commercial jetliners to offset a weak defense business. While Boeing still loses money on each 787 that it builds, it gets closer to breaking even as production increases.
Cash flow from the 787 is expected to improve next year, provided the factories stay on pace, Boeing said. The cash is needed to fund new plane development, as well as fulfill investors’ desire for share buybacks and dividends.
Boeing’s South Carolina facility makes all aft and midbody fuselage sections for the 787. Most of those sections are shipped to Everett for final assembly of the airplane, with the remainder assembled into finished planes in South Carolina.
Boeing said South Carolina aims to build three finished jets a month by mid-year, with Everett producing seven.
A Boeing employee in South Carolina said factory managers are telling workers to put down their tools and let pieces move along the assembly line even if they are not finished, so that the plant can maintain its output rate.
Boeing’s spokesman confirmed it is sometimes more efficient if unfinished work is moved elsewhere so the line can keep operating at the planned pace.
The production problems with the wiring bundles have caught the attention of the FAA, whose inspectors issued Boeing at least one “letter of investigation” on the matter months ago, according to the senior Everett employee.
The letter was part of ongoing FAA oversight and has not been linked to the current audit or to any issues on the delivered planes, including the 787 battery fires that grounded the entire fleet for more than three months last year.
According to Boeing, it has addressed the wiring issues raised by the letters. The company has teams to inspect all wiring, both from suppliers and its own facilities, as is standard practice.
The Everett worker said wiring is now no longer being fully installed in South Carolina. Instead, wiring bundles are being “pre-routed,” or put in loosely, and the actual connections are done in Everett.
The employees who discussed the 787 problems all asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly and feared losing their jobs.
BOEING TAKING ACTION
One contractor recently hired in South Carolina said his job consists of working “shoulder to shoulder” with assembly workers to review engineering plans, inspect components before they are installed, oversee installation and review the final work to make sure it was done properly. Other contractors perform assembly or fabrication work.
He said 9,500 work orders were backlogged late last month. The Boeing staff worker in South Carolina said the backlog has since fallen to about 7,500
Boeing disputed those figures, but declined to give other numbers. It said about 7,000 contract and staff employees currently work at the South Carolina facility.
The contractors are being paid overtime on mandatory work Saturdays, the contract worker said. Sunday work is voluntary but there is pressure to volunteer, the worker said.
Boeing Chief Executive Jim McNerney told an industry conference last week that bottlenecks in the South Carolina factory appeared as Boeing added a stretched version of the 787-8, known as the 787-9, while increasing the production rate.
There was “not any sign that the 787 program is off the rails or we may not be able to hold 10 a month,” McNerney told the conference organized by Cowen & Co.
“This is what happens on all of our programs,” he said. “Sometimes when we break to a rate, it surfaces an issue that needs some extra attention. And that’s really the story here.”
– REUTERS
Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited (SNEPCo) has welcomed efforts to promote safe helicopter services across Africa in a proposed Regional Action Plan (RAP).
The plan, according to a company statement, is the highlight of a workshop organised in Lagos within the week by the Aviation subcommittee of the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP) in partnership with London-based safety advocacy group, HeliOffshore.
Biztellers reports that the two-day Offshore Helicopter Industry Safety Workshop (OHISW) with the theme “Developing a Regional Action Plan,” followed on from a similar session last year which SNEPCo sponsored.
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It also provided administrative and logistical support for this year’s conference which was sponsored by ExxonMobil. SNEPCo, which pioneered Nigeria’s deepwater production at Bonga in 2005, relies on helicopter shuttles for operations and supports the workshop as part of its contributions towards safe services in Nigeria.
In an address at the opening session delivered by General Manager Contracting and Supply Chain, Charles Oranyeli, Managing Director SNEPCo, Ronald Adams said: “By developing a regional action plan, we can move beyond dialogue to alignment, ensuring that the safety leadership, industry standards, and collaborative approaches championed last year are embedded in a common roadmap for collective improvement. The most effective solutions will come not from isolated efforts, but from partnership, standardization, and coordinated action across the region.”
The workshop was attended by more than 80 representatives from oil and gas companies, the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB), helicopter operators and original equipment manufacturers.
The event concluded with participants deciding action items for the proposed Regional Action Plan including Search and Rescue (SAR) initiatives, implementation of IOGP Report 690 standards and establishment of formal industry leadership forums.
The IOGP has been active for over 50 years, supporting its more than 90 members around the world to promote “excellence in safe, efficient and sustainable energy.”
The Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) has declared that airlines operating in Nigeria have come under financial pressure following a sharp increase in the price of Jet-A1, also known as aviation fuel.
According to the group, the price of aviation fuel, has surged to about N1,800 per litre in many parts of the country, from about N1,000 per litre two weeks ago. This amounts to almost an 80 per cent increase within a short period.
Aviation fuel remains the largest cost component in airline operations, accounting for about 30 to 35 per cent of total operating expenses.
Industry stakeholders have linked the latest spike to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, which has pushed up global energy prices.
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Speaking on Channels Television on Friday, the spokesperson for the Airline Operators of Nigeria, Prof Obiora Okonkwo, said the surge had placed airlines under severe financial strain.
According to him, most carriers have so far refrained from immediately transferring the additional cost burden to passengers, despite the pressure on their operations.
“Two weeks ago, we were getting Jet-A1 at about N1,000 per litre, which today is about N1,800, and even more in some stations. We have experienced an increase of about 80 per cent. That’s quite a spike,” Okonkwo said.
He explained that airlines were currently absorbing the losses in order to avoid worsening the economic burden on the travellers.
“We are not in a business where you can easily adjust your ticket price. Right now what we are doing is that we are bleeding. We are taking the blow. We are selling tickets at very non-profitable prices. We are losing a lot of money,” he said.
Okonkwo warned that the situation might not be sustainable if fuel prices continue to rise without government intervention.
“Obviously, adjustments will be expected anytime soon. But again, we are very sensitive to the economic situation of Nigerians and our travellers,” he added.
He noted that developments in the global oil market, particularly the recent release of reserve crude oil, could influence fuel prices in the coming weeks.
Okonkwo also urged the Federal Government to explore engagement with the Dangote Refinery as part of efforts to stabilise aviation fuel supply locally.
“We were more hopeless in a situation where there was no refinery in Nigeria in the last two years. Now that we have a refinery, we are hopeful that we can find a solution around it,” he said.
According to him, if the spike persists, some airlines may struggle to continue absorbing the losses associated with the rising cost of aviation fuel.
Meanwhile, the AON spokesperson also reacted to the decision by the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission to sanction about five airlines over alleged price fixing.
Okonkwo said while the commission has regulatory powers, the aviation sector remains deregulated, making coordinated price fixing unlikely.
“There is no meeting of airlines where they agree to fix prices. Fixing prices would mean operating as a cartel, and that is not the case,” he said.
He explained that airline ticket pricing varies widely because different aircraft types attract different operating costs.
“Each airline determines its fares based on its own operational costs,” he said.
Okonkwo added that airlines must also demonstrate financial viability to regulators as part of the conditions for maintaining their operating licences.
“At every point in time, you must prove to the regulators that you are financially viable and capable of sustaining operations,” he said.
He urged regulators to take into account the fragile nature of the aviation industry when making policy decisions affecting airlines.
An Air Peace flight from Lagos to Port Harcourt has suffered a disruption, after the aircraft was affected by a bird strike on arrival at the Port Harcourt International Airport.
The airline made the disclosure on Thursday in a statement signed by its spokesperson, Osifo-Whiskey Efe.
He added that the incident necessitated safety checks on the affected aircraft and the deployment of another aircraft to convey passengers on subsequent flights.
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“We deeply empathise with passengers affected by this unforeseen incident and are working diligently to minimise disruptions,” Efe said.
The latest incident adds to the growing challenge of bird strikes faced by local airlines.
In December 2025, Air Peace disclosed that it recorded 49 bird strikes across Nigeria between January and September, stressing that even a single strike could ground an aircraft for weeks.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the airline, Allen Onyema, had said on Arise TV that bird strikes constituted a major operational challenge, often leading to costly repairs and serious disruptions to flight schedules.
“One bird strike could cripple your aircraft for the next month. At that moment, there is no two ways about it. These bird strikes often lead to costly delays and serious disruptions in flight schedules,” he said.
He added that losses from such incidents compound other challenges facing Nigerian airlines, including heavy taxation and operational constraints.
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