Analysts have been concerned about how long it would take for Boeing to recover its huge investment in the more fuel-efficient passenger plane, which went through several years of production delays and cost increases before the first jet was delivered last month.
Boeing’s chief financial officer, James A. Bell, said Wednesday that individual plane sales would not become profitable until 2015, but that under accounting rules, the Chicago-based company would be able to average the low, single-digit profit over all of the first 1,100 planes sold, which is expected to take about a decade.
That profit level could increase if production costs decline, he added. The company expects to sell 5,000 of the planes over the next two decades.
The 787 is the first commercial airliner made substantially with lightweight carbon composites, which promise to cut fuel costs for airlines.
All Nippon Airways, the first 787 customer, inaugurated service with the plane on Wednesday, taking 240 people from Tokyo to Hong Kong on a four hour 10 minute flight. The Japanese airline expects to take delivery of several more 787s by year-end.
Because of the production problems, Boeing is having to redo a significant amount of production work on the first 40 to 45 planes. But it also has orders for 821 planes, the most ever for a new commercial jet.
Boeing earned $1.46 a share in the third quarter, up from $1.12 a share a year earlier and well above the average of $1.10 a share that analysts had expected. Boeing’s net income rose 31 percent to $1.1 billion for the quarter, from $837 million a year ago. Sales rose 4.5 percent to $17.7 billion from $17 billion.
The company also raised its full-year earnings guidance to a range of $4.30 to $4.40 a share from the previous estimates of $3.90 to $4.10.
But it said that given the rework issues and other problems, it would deliver only 15 to 20 of its 787s and new 747-8 freighters this year, down from a previous estimate of 25 to 30 in combined sales. It also cut its estimates of total plane deliveries for 2011 to 480 from between 485 and 495.
Boeing said revenues for its commercial airplane division rose to $9.5 billion in the third quarter, from $8.7 billion a year earlier. Revenues for its military business were flat at $8.2 billion, though cost-cutting helped the company boost its profit in that area.
Three other large military contractors — Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics — also reported Wednesday that they had topped quarterly earnings forecasts.
But with the Pentagon facing serious budget cuts, sales were lower than analysts expected at Northrop and General Dynamics. And Lockheed cautioned that full-year sales could be flat in 2012.
Robert J. Stevens, Lockheed’s chief executive, also said that the Pentagon was holding up some payments on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, while insisting that the company share the cost of fixing any equipment problems that show up in flight tests.
Mr. Stevens said the government had traditionally covered such costs, but that Lockheed was willing to handle some of them as long there were limits on its exposure.
Pentagon officials have said they will not finish negotiating a contract for the next batch of fighters, or pay Lockheed for parts it has already bought, unless the company agrees to share any retrofit costs, Mr. Stevens said. He said the company and its suppliers were already owed $750 million for advance work, and that figure would rise to $1.2 billion by year end.
The F-35 is the Pentagon’s largest weapons program, and the military has come under increasing pressure to reduce the costs. Government auditors have said the program could cost $382 billion if the military were to stick with plans to buy 2,440 planes.
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