Boeing Delays 737 Shipments

Boeing Co., the world's second- largest commercial planemaker, will delay deliveries of 737 model aircraft because of faulty parts and repair existing jets, hampering a recovery from a two-month machinists strike.

``It's a big deal,'' said Michel Merluzeau, an aviation consultant at G2 Solution in Kirkland, Washington. ``They're going to miss their production numbers by a huge margin this year.''

A Boeing supplier has been using bad nutplates -- inch-long fasteners that attach wiring and other components to the inside of the 737's body -- since August 2007, said Vicki Ray, a spokeswoman in Seattle for Chicago-based Boeing. The parts may be installed on 394 of the planes that Boeing built between August 2007 and October 2008, according to its Web site.

The delays for the 737, the world's most widely flown jet, complicates Boeing's effort to resume shipments after a strike by machinists idled factories for two months through Nov. 2, shaving more than $10 million a day from Boeing's profit. The world's second-largest commercial-plane maker, which was building more than 30 737s a month before the walkout, hasn't yet given customers a new timetable for their planes on order.

FULL ARTICLE - Bloomberg News