The delay will likely cost the manufacturer billions of dollars.

Zach Vasile

Boeing has pushed back the debut of its long-delayed 777X widebody jet to early 2027, according to a new report from Bloomberg.

Citing unnamed sources with knowledge of the matter, the news outlet said Boeing will likely not be able to deliver its first 777X aircraft next year as planned.

Customers such as Lufthansa and Emirates are already making changes to their fleet planning for 2026 to accommodate the delay, Bloomberg reported.

The 777X was originally scheduled to enter commercial service in 2020, but technical problems, supply chain issues, and continued delays in the aircraft’s certification by the FAA have postponed deliveries several times.

The FAA has faulted the type for an alleged lack of “design maturity” and in 2020 reported an “uncommanded pitch event” on a test flight, which caused the airplane’s nose to pitch up without pilot input.

The manufacturer has said it expects the FAA to certify the aircraft at some point in 2026.

Postponing the 777X once again will likely cost Boeing between $2.5 billion and $4 billion in accounting charges, according to Bloomberg.

Company officials declined to comment on the outlet’s story.

Boeing executives have signaled in recent weeks that the 777X’s certification was falling behind schedule.

Last month, CEO Kelly Ortberg told Morgan Stanley’s Laguna Conference that there was a “mountain of work” tied to the 777X, though he pointed out that there are now five aircraft in the testing program.

There have been no new technical problems with the 777X or its engines, Ortberg added, but the certification process as a whole is taking longer to navigate than company leaders anticipated.

“We’re clearly behind our plan in getting the certification done,” he said, according to Business Insider.

At the time, Ortberg was still confident the aircraft would be ready by 2026.

Boeing has not provided its own estimate of how much a delay would cost. That information will likely be disclosed in the manufacturer’s next earnings report, set to be released Oct. 29.

At the Morgan Stanley conference, Ortberg said that even a minor holdup could have a “pretty big financial impact because we’re in a reach-forward loss situation.” He said he had asked CFO Jay Malave to look at the financial implications of a delay.

Boeing has also struggled to gain certification for two of its 737 MAX variants, the MAX 7 and the MAX 10, both of which were expected to enter service years ago. Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal reported that the company is developing a new single-aisle jet that could eventually replace the 737 MAX.