Qatar B787 first delivery now slips to November

Although the “contractual delivery” took place last week the Dreamliner – officially debuted at Farnborough Airshow – has in fact been flown to Victorville in California for modifiction.

According to Saj Ahmad, senior analyst at Strategic Aero Research, the delay is due to problems with the Thales IFE system.

“When we saw the Dreamliner at Farnborough Air Show you could see that the IFE system was not up to scratch,” Ahmad said. “The system was not up to Qatar’s standard”

Ahmad will be discussing the challenges Qatar faces with the B787 on Sunday’s Arabian Aerospace Radio.

Qatar’s CEO Akbar Al Baker said at the Routes conference in Abu Dhabi last week that he was getting increasing frustrated with Boeing over the delays to the Dreamliner. Flightglobal reported that Qatar has have initiated discussions with Airbus about a major A330 deal.

Qatar Airways has 30 787s on order, and had been expecting to introduce its first five this year, with deliveries due to continue through 2013 and 2014. But facing a potential capacity shortage, talks have begun with Airbus for up to 24 A330s. with deliveries from mid-2013.