UPDATE: ANA, Boeing Set Date For First Dreamliner Delivery

All Nippon Airways Co. (9202.TO) and Boeing Co. (BA) said Friday that the Japanese carrier will receive the first 787 Dreamliner passenger jet on Sept. 25, ending a 40-month wait after a series of production and design delays.

The long-awaited first delivery of the fuel-efficient widebody jet will see it leave Boeing's plant in Everett, Wash., on Sept. 27, arriving in Tokyo the next day.

The 787 is due to be approved for commercial service by U.S. regulators at a ceremony near Seattle later Friday, a process carried out in parallel with authorities in Japan, Europe and elsewhere, and up to a dozen Dreamliners are expected to be delivered to as many as four airlines by the end of the year.

All Nippon had been due to receive its first 787 in May 2008 having launched the program with a 50-plane order -- later increased to 55 -- in April 2004. Boeing has been forced to compensate customers for its late arrival, raising question marks over the profitability of the program.

The first delivery to ANA will trigger the release by Boeing of the accounting treatment for the 787 program with its third-quarter results in October. The company has said the 787 remains profitable, though analysts expect it to lose money on the first few hundred planes. It has firm orders for more than 800.

The Japanese airline expects to receive 11 more 787s by the end of March, followed by another eight in the next fiscal year through March 2013.

-By Hiroyuki Kachi, Dow Jones Newswires; 813-6269-2789; Hiroyuki.Kachi@dowjones.com

-By Doug Cameron, Dow Jones Newswires; 312-750-4135; doug.cameron@dowjones.com

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