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Air Force One Update Is Delayed by Budget Deal in Blow to Boeing

  • First presidential airplane would be ordered in fiscal 2017
  • With few orders for latest 747 jumbo, U.S. is a crucial buyer
Air Force One.

Air Force One.

Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg

An order for the first Boeing Co. 747 jumbo jet for the new, upgraded Air Force One fleet to ferry U.S. presidents will be postponed by a year to fiscal 2017 under a congressional budget agreement.

The delay is a setback to Boeing’s efforts to gin up sales of its humpbacked 747-8 model as unfilled orders for the plane dwindle to about two years of production. The planemaker has netted just two orders this year for its largest aircraft, which pioneered long-range travel in the 1970s.