Dreamliner will buttress Boeing in 2009

CHICAGO, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- Boeing's Dreamliner could help the U.S. aircraft company weather the industry's downturn, analysts say.

The Seattle Times reported Sunday that the U.S. aerospace sector should fare better than most industries in 2009.

A potential very bright spot for the Chicago aircraft company will be that its 787 Dreamliner aircraft should finally fly by next summer.

Aerospace analyst Richard Aboulafia of the Teal Group said he expects the downturn to hit Boeing in 2010 and last at least three years.

"If we make the assumption that the worst is over in the financial crisis, what's left is years of digging the economy and the industry out," Aboulafia said. "It's going to be one of the longer-lived downturns."

However, Wall Street analyst Joe Campbell of Barclays Capital said he expects air traffic to recover from the global economic crisis by 2010.

He said although the world's airlines will need planes, Boeing may need to slow production in the second half of 2010, but any cuts "will not be deep and prolonged."