Boeing Dreamliner on delayed schedule

SINGAPORE, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Boeing Co. hasn't completed production plans for the fuel-efficient B787 Dreamliner but said it could maintain its expected delivery date of 2009.

At the Singapore Airshow, where two airlines announced new deals with Boeing worth a combined $6.4 billion, a spokesman for the Chicago manufacturer said Boeing was "waiting to the end of the first quarter to finish the production plan." After that, "we can make better projections on deliveries for 2009."

Boeing had scheduled first deliveries of the Dreamliner for May 2008, The Wall Street Journal reported.

On Tuesday, Lion Air of Indonesia announced a new contract to purchase 56 Boeing 737-900ER planes, which list for $4.4 billion. They expect delivery between 2014 and 2016, the report said.

Garuda Indonesia announced a 10-plane order valued at $2 billion.

Randy Tinseth, vice president of marketing commercial airplanes for Boeing, said the company collected orders for more than 1,000 planes in each of the past three years and had a 3,400-plane order backlog "worth $225 billion," he said.