Boeing has had to cut its sales forecasts for next year by $3.5bn, or 5 per cent, as a result of the recently announced delays to deliveries of the new 787 Dreamliner.

Mounting concerns about the 787 programme, Boeing’s biggest investment in commercial aircraft for more than a decade, prompted the group last week to change the top management of the project only days after announcing that first 787 deliveries would be at least six to seven months late.