Boeing crisis delivers another blow to Virgin

Virgin Australia has officially pushed back its aircraft delivery timeframes due to production hurdles at global manufacturing giant Boeing, joining US giants United, Alaska and Southwest, which have all confirmed their orders will not arrive on time. The airline told staff on Friday that 31 of the Max aircraft it has on order would not arrive on time, despite insisting in January that it would not be affected by the increased production timeframes imposed on Boeing after a door plug on an Alaska Airlines 737 Max-9 fell off mid-flight. The carrier business ordered 14 737 Max-8s in total, with the bulk of this order originally due to arrive by the end of this year and four already in service. The group now expects just four Max-8s to be delivered this year in light of the production delays, with the remaining six not expected until 2025. Virgin had originally expected one Max-8 to arrive every month for the rest of this year. Virgin’s order of 25 Boeing 737 Max-10s were due to begin arriving next calendar year. The airline has pushed back its delivery timeframe to FY26. The delivery blowout is the latest in a string of setbacks for Virgin, which has been grappling with poor on-time performance and above-average flight cancellation rates all year due to internal supply chain challenges– including a lack of spare aircraft and crew– as well as external factors including air traffic control staffing issues and weather.<br/>