They can be flown with approval from the appropriate aviation authorities. Basically a ferry flight. I remember one being flown back to Seattle to the Boeing plant. Plus one has flown for testing purposes.<br /><br />Under certain circumstances airlines can ask for approval to ferry an aircraft to another location for maintenance that cannot be performed at its current location. They will submit the flight plan and what is wrong and ask for a one time exception.<br /><br />As for airlines losing money while those planes sit. Behind the scene Boeing and the airlines are negotiating terms for current and future considerations on other planes on order.<br /><br />Good to see Boeing has a new design they want to test.<br /><br />Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2<br /><br />