Airlines flying Boeing's Dreamliner are complaining about quality they say is 'way down’

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Some of the airlines buying 787 Dreamliners built at Boeing Co.’s North Charleston campus are complaining about “unacceptable” production mistakes and poor quality, and analysts say the criticism points to issues deep within the aerospace giant’s culture. While workers at the Dreamliner factory have previously reported quality lapses, this is the first time such private criticism from Boeing’s customers has been made public.

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“Boeing Commercial Airplanes clearly has a systemic problem in designing, producing and delivering airplanes,” said Scott Hamilton, an aerospace analyst and editor of Leeham News and Analysis. The airline complaints are included as part of internal surveys Boeing asks carriers to complete when a plane is delivered. Not all airlines participate and results sometimes can be skewed by such things as supplier issues that are out of Boeing’s control

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For example, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines called the factory’s quality control “way below acceptable standards” for a 787-10 delivered at North Charleston in June. The plane included a special livery to celebrate the carrier’s 100th anniversary. KLM noted several issues, including a loose seat, missing or wrongly installed cotter pins, nuts not fully tightened, an unsecured fuel line clamp and several unspecified missing parts. “Who looks at quality in this facility,” KLM asked, adding the airline “is worried for the next deliveries.” “There are serious doubts about quality and Boeing’s ability to deliver on time,” the carrier stated.

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