The 777X is Boeing’s new flagship aircraft. While the jet was initially supposed to enter commercial service in 2020, that timeline has been pushed back considerably. In recent times, it seemed like Boeing had actually made some good progress on certification, with the plan being for a mid-2026 entry into service for the plane.
Unfortunately that’s no longer in the cards, and at this point the plane’s entry into service has been pushed back into 2027, as reported by Bloomberg. We had some hints that this was coming a few weeks back, but it’s now closer to being official.
In this post:
The basics of the hugely delayed Boeing 777X project
For those not familiar, the 777X is Boeing’s newest version of the 777. The project was launched 12 years ago, in 2013, and so far not a single plane is in commercial service. The 777X will come in two variants — the 777-8 and 777-9 — and the planes are more fuel efficient, longer range, and larger than existing 777s (and larger than 787s, which are also popular).
With there clearly not being a market anymore for planes like the A380 and 747-8, this will likely be the biggest new aircraft we see manufactured in the next decade.
There are currently around 565 orders for the 777X, so the plane is popular, though not as popular as the A350 or 787, which are lower capacity while still being long range and fuel efficient. Emirates is the single biggest customer for the 777X, as the airline has 205 of these jets on order, and is using these to replace Airbus A380s, as those jets retire.
However, airlines like All Nippon Airways, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Lufthansa, Qatar Airways, and Singapore Airlines, are also counting on this jet for fleet renewal, all with plans to make this their flagship aircraft.
The Boeing 777X will enter service no earlier than 2027
The Boeing 777X was initially supposed to enter service in 2020, but that timeline has slipped back considerably over the years. In 2024, the plan was for the plane to enter service in 2025. For most of 2025, the plan has been for the plane to enter service in 2026.
Now the latest update is that the plane has been delayed until 2027. Lufthansa is the launch customer for the 777X, and no longer expects it’ll receive its first jet next year. Several weeks ago, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg told investors that “the mountain of work is still there” for 777X certification, and “we are falling behind on the certification,” clearly hinting at this delay.
The 777X program has already accumulated more than $11 billion in overruns, and this latest delay could cost Boeing as much as an extra $4 billion.
The good news is that Boeing is making material progress with test flights, and it seems that things are actually moving in the right direction, rather than being fully stalled. That being said, getting a new plane certified is no small task.
Going back several years, the Boeing 777X was supposed to complete its first test flight in mid-2019, but that ended up being pushed back to early 2020. This delay was due to issues with the GE9X General Electric engines on the plane. These are the largest engines ever on a commercial plane, though they were having durability problems, causing a delay in certification.
That wasn’t the only issue, though — during the 777X certification process, a door also blew off during a stress test. But that was only the start of the issues. Then Boeing had its first round of issues with the 737 MAX, when two of the jets had fatal crashes. That doesn’t even account for Boeing’s production quality issues in 2024, which caused new senior leadership to be appointed. And then in late 2024, Boeing workers went on strike.
It certainly seems that with every passing year, the 777X just gets pushed back by another year. However, I do believe that things are at least moving in the right direction, in the sense that progress doesn’t seem to be fully stalled. But still, have you just keep delaying a new plane by a year every year?!?
Why the 777X delay matters for airlines & passengers
It’s pretty obvious why airlines care about the Boeing 777X delivery delays. Delivery delays with the 777X have greatly messed up fleet planning at many airlines — airlines order planes with specific strategies in mind, and a delay of this many years sure messes things up.
Beyond that, though, passengers should care about these delays as well. Several airlines intend to use the Boeing 777X as their new flagship aircraft, and will introduce new cabins on these planes. In some cases they’ve even had to change their plans. For example:
- Emirates will be installing its new first class on the 777X, which is otherwise only available on fewer than a dozen 777-300ERs; the planes will also be getting a new business class, which is long overdue for the 777
- Cathay Pacific was going to debut its new Aria Suites business class on the 777X, but is now retrofitting existing 777-300ERs with this product; the airline will still debut its new Halo Suites first class on this jet
- Singapore Airlines is expected to debut both a new first and business class product on its 777Xs
- Qatar Airways is expected to launch a new first class on the 777X, in addition to offering its refreshed Qsuites business class
- Lufthansa was going to debut its new Allegris first class and Allegris business class on the 777X, but due to the delays, this is now being installed on A350s and 787s first
Bottom line
The 777X is Boeing’s new flagship wide body aircraft. While the plane was supposed to enter service in 2020, that timeline has been pushed back by several years. Until recently, the plan was for the plane to enter service around the middle of 2026, but now that timeline has been pushed back to early 2027.
It’s just incredible to think that design on an updated version of an existing jet started in 2013, and best case scenario, will enter service 14 years later. One wonders if updating existing aircraft just ends up being more complicated, or how long it would take for a fully new designed plane to enter service.
How incredibly frustrating. I’m really excited to finally fly this new plane, but it’s so unfortunate that with every year that passes, the plane is seemingly one additional year from entering service.
When do you think the Boeing 777X will actually enter service?
>The year is 2027
>The Boeing 777X will enter service no earlier than 2029
>The year is 2031
>The Boeing 777X will enter service no earlier than 2031
>The year is After Colony 195
>The United Earth Sphere Alliance gains great military powers and soon seizes control of one colony after another in the name of justice and peace. the Boeing 777X has still not entered service.
Honestly the folding wing idea is great on paper but will cost much money. We haven't even thought about the amount of teething issues that this folding wingtip will come up. There have to be plenty of redundancies because the wingtip needs to be down for a safe operation. The wingtips cannot suddenly fold up during a takeoff or landing roll or they won't have the lift. Then in terms of airport ops, what happen...
Honestly the folding wing idea is great on paper but will cost much money. We haven't even thought about the amount of teething issues that this folding wingtip will come up. There have to be plenty of redundancies because the wingtip needs to be down for a safe operation. The wingtips cannot suddenly fold up during a takeoff or landing roll or they won't have the lift. Then in terms of airport ops, what happen if the wingtip suddenly fold down during taxiing. It can hit other aircraft or vehicles.
With the greedy US corporate culture, who only cares about money, the kind of innovation that Boeing used to provide can never come up again. It is sad but this kind of short-sighted MBA culture will destroy Boeing reputation.
I don't think 777-9 will come online before 2030. And I predict that their performance will be less than what all these airlines think.
If I am one of those carriers, I will buy up as many A350-1000s as possible, even if it is a 5 to 10 years wait. Airbus should come up with a new twin widebody jet now. Who knows that unname airplanes may beat 777-9?
Folding wings were a thing in 1913 and they worked for many decades after on carrier-based aircraft. Boeing are a shadow of their former great selves, but I think even they can design a locking mechanism to keep that 777x wing rigid during flight or up during taxi.
You gotta love the McDonnell Douglas management for their ability to destroy a fabulous engineering company like Boeing.
I have mentioned this several times on here over the years. The 777-X will never be certified.
Why? 10% of the people on here are aware of things at large, while the vast majority wouldn't hear it if it was told to them! It all is what it is.
Carriers should just focus on grabbing any airworthy A380s, and scooping up the A350s. The last generation of planes is what is here.
Yeah. No.
Boeing should take advantage of self-certification. Certify the plane, NOW! Then...
If a door blows off and sucks people out? Fix that door, retest, test passes, resume flights.
Planes' batteries overheat underneath passenger doors? Wait for a fire that causes a crash, fix the batteries, retest, test passes, resume flights.
Planes crashed into ground due to buggy software? Fix the software, retest, test passes, resume flights.
Beta testing with living passengers has worked before...
Boeing should take advantage of self-certification. Certify the plane, NOW! Then...
If a door blows off and sucks people out? Fix that door, retest, test passes, resume flights.
Planes' batteries overheat underneath passenger doors? Wait for a fire that causes a crash, fix the batteries, retest, test passes, resume flights.
Planes crashed into ground due to buggy software? Fix the software, retest, test passes, resume flights.
Beta testing with living passengers has worked before for Boeing, why stop now?
Did somebody skip their prescription meds today?
Psst…. Satire.
@Travelwilly
Are you being sarcastic? Tell me you are being sarcastic
@justindev - of *course* I'm being sarcastic (but with large dose of exasperation with Boeing thrown in for good measure).
Man this its real bad.
One gets the feeling that in the bloodlust for twin engines, strapping on GE-90s the size of a studio apartment might just be a leap too far.
Here is a novel idea. A three or 4 engined airliner
Do you really think they'd be doing better? Unlikely.
Might as well scrap it. BY the time of EIS, it will already be outdated :-)
What's the reason airlines aren't just picking the A350-1000 up instead? It sits smack dab in the middle of the 778 & 779 in size and capacity, and seems to have longer range. Based on my very uninformed research, the only metric that was significantly different was the fuselage size, which doesn't alter the capacity that's only different by 10-20 seats.
A350s are Porsche money, 777s cost the same as Kia hatchbacks.
My guess is wing design. While you are correct the basic structure of the fuselage is unchanged, this is the first commercial aircraft ever to utilise folding wing tips/segments.
It may sound simple, but there was a reason Airbus limited wing length on the A380 and looked at, but did not pursue, the folding wing option.
While it may seem simple, the folding wing segments require a complete structural redesign of the whole wing -...
My guess is wing design. While you are correct the basic structure of the fuselage is unchanged, this is the first commercial aircraft ever to utilise folding wing tips/segments.
It may sound simple, but there was a reason Airbus limited wing length on the A380 and looked at, but did not pursue, the folding wing option.
While it may seem simple, the folding wing segments require a complete structural redesign of the whole wing - a much more difficult and costly change than a different fuselage. Despite the name of the plane and the shared fuselage gauge, with a new wing design this plane is effectively a new aircraft compared to the existing 777 family.
Thanks guys. @Kerry - I'm assuming longer wings means it's significantly more efficient than the A350 then?
It's not a directly comparable plane. The 777-9X offers more floor space and, critically, a reasonable extra seat per row in Y. LHs existing LOPAs for example put 67J on the 747-400 (their "volume" config) and 8F plus 80J on the 747-8 (the premium config). Same is true for BA. J seats these days are less dense so you'll take a capacity hit regardless but the 777-9X gets closer than the 35K. JAL's 35K layout...
It's not a directly comparable plane. The 777-9X offers more floor space and, critically, a reasonable extra seat per row in Y. LHs existing LOPAs for example put 67J on the 747-400 (their "volume" config) and 8F plus 80J on the 747-8 (the premium config). Same is true for BA. J seats these days are less dense so you'll take a capacity hit regardless but the 777-9X gets closer than the 35K. JAL's 35K layout gets the closest with 6F and 54J but it's still quite a gap.
BA and EK can get by running existing 77W fleets (and maybe picking up used frames from airlines retiring them early) but LH is stuck because they bet entirely on the 777-9X to replace non standard VLA's (744, 748, 346) vs taking a few end-of-line 77W to hedge their bets.
@YYCYYZ
Lufthansa made it clear that the 777-9 will replace the 747-400 while the A350-1000 will replace the A340-600. The 747-8 will continue to fly for at least a decade as Lufthansa is planning to retrofit them with new seats. Lufthansa is stuck because of their over engineered Allegris seats which has been certified on the A350-900 alone. LH is struggling to get those seats certified on other aircraft like the 787-9.
Allegris is part of the problem, sure. My point was that they went all in on T+1 gen to directly replace T-1 gen vs taking a few T0 gen incrementally (like BA with the 77W)
The 747-8 may fly for another decade but given the lead time on these things, the 777-9X or (hypothetical) 777-10X will be the likely replacement in a second tranche because there's no other AC of comparable size in development....
Allegris is part of the problem, sure. My point was that they went all in on T+1 gen to directly replace T-1 gen vs taking a few T0 gen incrementally (like BA with the 77W)
The 747-8 may fly for another decade but given the lead time on these things, the 777-9X or (hypothetical) 777-10X will be the likely replacement in a second tranche because there's no other AC of comparable size in development. Also, having more frames on property regardless of direct match allows some incremental replacement of these tiny sub fleets like the 346.
Is this still a paperwork issue? My guess is test flights have picked up few things (nothing major) and it needs a workaround. I’m just shocked at this point. At least 15 month delay. Mind numbing
A350XWB industrial launch - 2006
First flight - 2013
Entry into service - 2015.
Lufthansa launch customer for 777? All Y seating probably safer option for both parties.