Thursday, November 29, 2012

Possible breakthrough between China and Boeing over 787s?

This afternoon Everett photographer, Matt Cawby, tweeted that ZA382 (LN 43, B-2727) has been moved from the South Ramp storage area to the Everett Fuel Dock.  I'm going out on a limb in saying that this may be an indication that the issues between CAAC and Boeing may have been resolved to allow delivery of 787s to the 3 Chinese carriers that have them on order (Air China, China Southern Airlines, and Hainan Airlines).

This particular aircraft has made only one flight in late October and has since been put into storage.  One other 787 for Hainan flew 4 times before being stored on the South Ramp but it has not been moved yet.

I cannot offer any other reason for the move other than either 1) preparations for delivery to the customer 2) Preparing the aircraft to be flown to a long term storage facility in the US Southwest (i.e. Arizona or Southern California desert storage) or 3) Boeing carrying out some maintenance or assembly tasks that need to be done.

Still it has raised eyebrows and I'll try to ascertain why the aircraft is at the fuel dock.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Perhaps it has something to do with the US not labeling china a currency manipulator?
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/52bbf11a-38dd-11e2-bd13-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2DdcQ72ue

Michael Lowrey said...

Any word on what (if anything) is in EMC Bay C these days?

Uresh said...

Currently it still open.

Unknown said...

JA818A had its initial engine run today according to Mat Cawby's blog.