Delta may not take Boeing 787-8

Although it continues to talk with Boeing about the 787, Delta Airlines has given the strongest signal yet that it will not take some or all of the 18 Dreamliners it has on order.

The planes were ordered by Northwest, which is now part of Delta, and Delta has said it likely will want more of the bigger 777s from Boeing instead.

In a regulatory filing this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Delta said it had dropped from the report the 787s on firm order.

“We have excluded from (the report) our order for 18 B-787-8 aircraft. The Boeing Company has informed us that Boeing will be unable to meet the contractual delivery schedule for these aircraft. We are in discussions with Boeing regarding this situation.”

The 787 is about two years late. Northwest was to have been the first U.S. airline to operate the Dreamliner. Continental has ordered 25 787s and will now likely to be the first U.S. carrier to put the plane into service if Delta doesn’t take the 787s that were supposed to go to Northwest.

Assuming it can agree on a pay rate for the pilots who fly it, American Airlines has said it will buy 42 787s and take options on many more. But those are not yet firm orders. And American has said it wants the bigger 787-9.

A Delta spokesperson said the airline has not canceled the Northwest order.

“The orders are still on the books,” a Boeing spokesman said Tuesday.

But perhaps not for long.

Delta executives have indicated over the past several months that as it integrates its fleet with that of Northwest, Delta will seek significant changes in airplane orders that both airlines have placed with Boeing.

Over the short term, Delta may increase its firm orders for the 777-200LR, a long-range plane that can fly as much as 19 or more hours nonstop. In the regulatory filing, Delta said it has eight more of the 777s on firm order with options to take another 10.

In addition to the firm 787 orders, Delta also still has options, from Northwest, for 18 more 787s and those were listed in its regulatory filing. Six of the planes on option are supposed to be delivered in 2013 and the remaining dozen in the years following, Delta said.

In November, during a visit to Seattle, Delta Chief Executive Richard Anderson said in an interview that he believed the airline would eventually operate the 787, and possibly a lot of them.

“Given the wide variations of markets we serve, the 787 over the long term will certainly have a role,” he said then.

The much-delayed 787-8 is supposed to make its maiden flight in the second quarter with the first planes delivered to All Nippon Airways in February 2010. Deliveries were originally supposed to start in May 2008, with Northwest getting its first 787s later that year.

If Delta does not take the Northwest 787-8s, it may switch to the bigger 787-9 for those options that are still on its books for delivery in 2013 and later. Because of the delays on the 787-8, development of the 787-9 has slipped and Boeing has said it will not be ready for customers until least 2012.

So far this year, Boeing has had 31 of its 787s orders canceled by two customers – a Russian airline and a Dubai leasing company. A customer also canceled one VIP 787-8 order.

More airlines that have ordered jets from Boeing and rival Airbus are expected to either push back delivery of planes or cancel some orders because of the worldwide recession that has sent the industry into one of its worst downturns ever.