A Qantas jet (foreground) sit on the tarmac at London’s Heathrow airport near London in December 2008.

Boeing Co. lost half of a 30-plane order for its 787 Dreamliner from Qantas Airways Ltd., formerly the model’s biggest airline customer, amid slumping demand for international travel.

The cancellation, valued at as much as US$3.1 billion based on Boeing’s current list prices, follows the fifth delay of the 787, already two years behind schedule. Boeing has lost orders for 58 Dreamliners this year as carriers struggle with record declines in passenger traffic and the International Air Transport Association forecasts industry losses worldwide may total $9 billion in 2009.

“Boeing is really facing a crisis that they will ultimately surmount, but they need to be very careful of a perceived loss of confidence,” said Michel Merluzeau, an aviation analyst at G2 Solutions in Kirkland, Washington. “The cancellation is a serious worry to the 787 program. I suspect this won’t be the last.”

Boeing, the world’s second-largest commercial plane maker, rose 2.9 percent to $42.53 Thursday and has plunged 38 percent in the past year. Qantas shares rose 1.8 percent, to A$2.01 at the close of Sydney trading.

Prudent delay

Qantas’s first batch of Dreamliners, 15 aircraft for its Jetstar discount carrier’s international routes, will be delivered from mid-2013, about three years later than planned.

“Delaying delivery, and reducing overall 787 capacity, is prudent,” Chief Executive Alan Joyce said in the statement. “Qantas announced its original 787 order in December 2005, and the operating environment for the world’s airlines has clearly changed dramatically since then.”

Qantas and Japan’s All Nippon Airways Co. will jointly remain the Dreamliner’s biggest airline customers with firm orders for 50 aircraft each.

“We are working with Qantas to make changes appropriate to the current climate,” said Jim Proulx, a Boeing spokesman in Seattle, where Boeing’s commercial aircraft operations are based.

The 787-9 is Boeing’s most expensive Dreamliner costing between $194 million and $205.5 million, according to Boeing’s website. It is the model’s longest-range version capable of carrying as many as 290 passengers as far as 8,500 nautical miles (15,750 kilometers).

Cost cutting

Cutting the Boeing order, two months after delaying deliveries of Airbus SAS planes, will save Joyce $3 billion as a slump in corporate travel creates record losses at Australia’s largest airline. Joyce, 43, has already slashed jobs and grounded aircraft to combat what he says is the aviation industry’s worst-ever crisis.

“They’ll take whatever measures they have to take, but they still have flexibility,” said Matt Crowe, an analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Sydney, who rates Qantas “overweight.” “In the short term the reduced capital expenditure will help.”

The company spent A$1.38 billion ($1.1 billion) in capital expenditure in the six months that ended in December, the highest amount in six years.

Airline industry 2009 losses worldwide may nearly double IATA’s previous forecast, as an outbreak of swine flu compounds the effects of the recession, the trade group said June 8. Sales may fall 15 percent to $448 billion from $528 billion last year, it said.

Missed flight

The Chicago-based planemaker said on June 23 that it will miss next week’s target for first flight because engineers conducting ground tests found parts of the plane need reinforcement.

Only a week prior to the delay, Scott Carson, head of Boeing’s commercial-planes unit, said the Dreamliner would fly before the end of the month, in a June 16 interview at the Paris Air Show.

Carson, who is 62 and has run the commercial unit since September 2006, and other executives were going on the best available information at last week’s show, according to Boeing, which trails only Toulouse, France-based Airbus in commercial- jet making.

“There is a disconnect and communication issue between management and what’s happening in the factory,” Merluzeau said. “That’s got people asking questions and shaking confidence in Boeing.”

Source: Bloomberg