American gives Boeing investors reason to cheer on Dreamliner

American Airlines Group Iexpects to receive all 13 of its tardy 787 Dreamliners this year, offering some relief for Boeing Co. investors -- if not travelers. Most of the jets will arrive too late for the crucial summer travel season. The airline’s update provides insight into a key issue for Boeing a week before it reports earnings: the resumption of Dreamliner handovers that have been largely halted since October 2020 amid a rash of tiny production flaws. American still expects to take the first of the popular wide-body in April, as it indicated last month, and signaled that no new delays have cropped up in the last six weeks. Boeing has compensated American for some of flying it’s lost because of delivery disruptions and has committed to covering the costs of any additional delays. “We’ve had some really good discussions with Boeing,” Derek Kerr, American’s chief financial officer, said on a conference call to discuss Q4 results. “We’re on track to hit that mid-April time frame.” That’s reassuring for investors waiting for Boeing to start generating cash from the more than 100 Dreamliners stuck in storage. The planemaker has repeatedly pushed back its schedule as it uncovered more of the “structural non-conformities” and other defects from its supply chain.<br/>