(Reuters) – Boeing Co shares fell 3.2% in premarket trading on Friday after the U.S. planemaker temporarily halted deliveries of its 787 Dreamliner jets over a documentation issue related to a fuselage component.
Boeing, while reviewing certification records, said on Thursday it “discovered an analysis error by our supplier related to the 787 forward pressure bulkhead,” leading to a pause in deliveries months after they were allowed to resume in August.
The component acts as a barrier between the pressurized interior cabin and the radome (or nose cone). It was supplied by Spirit AeroSystems, which said it was too early to assert it made the “analysis error.”
Some analysts said the latest hiccup in 787 deliveries should not result in any design changes and jets in service should continue to fly.
“An unwelcome blast from the past, but hopefully a brief one,” J.P. Morgan analyst Seth Seifman said in a note.
Seifman said the brokerage believes this should not result in additional rework and that Boeing can produce the required documentation fairly quickly.
The current issue is unrelated to a previous quality problem involving gaps around the forward pressure bulkhead, which was discovered by the FAA in 2021 and contributed to a delivery stoppage that lasted until August 2022.
“Our understanding is that the error is a “non-compliance” with FAA documentation requirements and not a “nonconformance” with a manufacturing specification,” Cowen analyst Cai von Rumohr said in a note.
Since the resumption of deliveries, production of the 787 has experienced some disruptions as the planemaker battles supply and labor shortages.
Earlier this month, Spirit said the process of retrofitting stored fuselages for the 787 jets was taking longer than expected.
(Reporting by Abhijith Ganapavaram in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
