Boeing CEO puts tombstone on 777X: "I've written to the companies..." Here's when we'll see it (maybe)
During 2024 there was repeated speculation about the date of the first delivery of the Boeing 777X. The latest addition to [...]
Qatar Airways
Lufthansa
Emirates
Star Alliance
Oneworld
Over the course of 2024, it has been repeatedly Speculated on the date of the first delivery of the Boeing 777X. Boeing's latest made its first flight the beauty of more than four and a half years ago, in March 2020. But the first orders from airlines date back as far as the middle of last decade.
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In recent times, executives of some carriers had expressed confidence that they would be able to deploy the aircraft in the fleet before the end of 2025. Auspices that had found comfort in the fact that, after years of 'private' testing , in the past month of July, Boeing had been given the green light by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for official testing to certify the aircraft, those conducted with pilots and technicians from the U.S. Federal Flight Safety Administration on board.
However, the hypothesis (hope?) that we might see the 777X in the colors of Emirates, Qatar Airways or Lufthansa (to name three of the carriers that have ordered a substantial number of aircraft) by the end of next year, has vanished On the day of Oct. 11, when Boeing President and CEO Kelly Ortberg wrote an open letter to all company employees, which is going through the most difficult time in its long history (which began in 1916) between accidents, scandals, strikes, slump in commercial aircraft orders, chronic delivery delays, and a loss of trust and reputation that will be very difficult to recover.
In his letter (in addition to announcing about a 10 percent cut in the workforce), Ortberg shares with his employees "some difficult decisions and program updates."
And at the top of the list is indeed the 777X, about which the CEO writes that "the challenges we faced in developing the program, combined with The recent halt to testing for certification of the aircraft that was imposed on us for a few weeks and with the strike that is ongoing (Boeing workers have been in a state of unrest for several days, ed.), they will delay the timing of the program itself. E Our customers have been notified that we now expect first deliveries in 2026".
In short, deliveries and who will be the first to be awarded the coveted aircraft will be talked about not earlier than a year from now. If all goes well...
