25 more orders canceled for Boeing's new 787

Boeing's much-delayed 787 Dreamliner has lost an additional 25 orders to the aviation downturn, the plane maker revealed on its order Web site Thursday.

With just weeks to go before its first flight, the Dreamliner program has now lost a total 57 orders since the beginning of the year and has taken in only one new order, for eight of the 787s.

That's a net decrease of 49 in the sales tally, although the plane still has a hefty 861 orders on the books.

Boeing's weekly update included orders for 13 of the single-aisle 737s as well as the order announced this week for five 777-300ERs for Turkish Airlines. It also included one 777 cancellation.

Boeing did not identify any of the customers canceling orders.

So far this year, the net order tally stands at -1, with 50 canceled airplanes and 49 new orders.

In dollar terms, the net impact is negative, because most of the new orders are single-aisle jets while most of the canceled ones are expensive wide-bodies.

The net cancellations are valued at about $5.5 billion, using market-pricing data from aircraft-valuation firm Avitas. By the same estimates, the net new orders are worth just over $3 billion.

Orders for April show a sharp sales decline compared with the previous year. Boeing won orders for 17 jets last month, down from 58 a year earlier.

But production is steady for now. The company delivered 39 jets in April, down just one from 40 rolled out a year earlier.

Production is expected to drop sharply next year in response to cancellations and deferrals by airlines that cannot use the new jets because the recession has hurt air travel.

Boeing announced last month it will cut the 777 production rate, to five a month from seven, in mid-2010.

Dominic Gates: 206-464-2963 or dgates@seattletimes.com