Boeing Co. reported first-quarter 2015 deliveries totaling 184 commercial jets, including 121 of its top-selling 737s, 30 of its high-profile 787 Dreamliners, and 24 of the long-range 777s. The year-on-year improvement is noteworthy — 23 more jets delivered in Q1 2015 than during Q1 2014 — but it hints that Boeing may fall short of its own forecast production totals for 2015. The OEM had set its target on 42 jets/month, which would have called for a Q1 delivery total of 126 aircraft.
Boeing’s deliveries were up approximately 14.3%, year over year. In Q1 2014, the company had delivered 115 units of the 737 and 18 units of the 787 series.
The single-aisle 737 remains Boeing’s most in-demand offering, with 71 new orders for those jets in the first quarter of the year, out of a total of 116 new aircraft booked since January 1.
At the same time, Boeing’s totals show that its high expectations for the Dreamliner series are well founded: The forecast goal is to deliver 120 of those wide-body aircraft for 2015, and the 30 jets delivered during Q1 put it squarely on target in that category.
Boeing has delivered a total of 258 Dreamliners since deliveries started in September 2011, most of those being the 787-8 version. The OEM has 847 orders still to be fulfilled for the 787, and most of those will be of the larger, 787-9 design.
Of the Q1 orders, Boeing Commercial Airplane’s v.p.-marketing Randy Tinseth wrote, “it’s worth noting that we booked 30 new 787 orders in the last week of March alone. With 184 deliveries in the quarter, we delivered 23 more airplanes than we did in the same period last year. That total includes 30 Dreamliners.”
Tinseth added that the delivery figures “show we continue to execute on our production rate increases. That’s especially important as we begin final assembly of the new 737 MAX later this year.”
