Boeing Company reported Wednesday that its first-quarter profit jumped almost 20 percent, easily beating Wall Street estimates and reflecting little impact from the grounding of the 787 Dreamliner fleet. The aerospace giant maintained its sales and profit forecasts for the full year, reassuring investors that it expects to deliver all of the jets it had planned, including Dreamliners. Boeing shares were up more than 3 percent in pre-market trading. Profit rose to $1.1 billion in the January-March quarter, up from $923 million in the same period a year ago. Core profit, which excludes some pension charges, also beat analyst expectations. Revenue fell 2.5 percent to $18.9 billion, hurt by a halt in Dreamliner deliveries. Batteries overheated on two of the new jetliners in January and led regulators to ground the airplane, effectively halting deliveries. Boeing did not release a cost estimate for the Dreamliner troubles, as some analysts had expected. Still, analysts did not expect the cost of the Dreamliner repairs to be significant compared with the $20 billion expense of developing the jet and the $120 billion in estimated costs for its initial production run. The 787 is designed for 50 years of production. U.S. aviation regulators approved Boeing's fix for the battery system last week, and Dreamliner deliveries are set to resume shortly. Boeing and airlines already are preparing the airplanes for a return to passenger service.
