After a three-month break from mid January until late April,  an elaborate battery fix and two US test flights, the 787 is back in the air.

I have previously described the changes that are being installed by 300 Boeing technicians to the planes across the world. Interestingly, the Japanese authorities have insisted on additional alterations in addition to the changes mandated by the FAA. They have insisted ANA and JAL  install battery monitoring systems to monitor the battery performance and to carry out an inspection program to battery changes are working effectively. These additional precautions do not apply to any other airlines flying 787
Three questions:

1. Why has the US FAA not forced US carriers to do the same fix as the Japanese?
2. Why will the other six airlines in the world not have the same safety?</li
3. How will consumers feel about this?

 The timetable for the return of the 787 in date order:

Ethiopian Airlines - April 27th: Addis-Abba - Ethiopia

Ethiopian Airlines were the first to fly 787 Dreamliner since grounding with a two-hour incident free commercial flight (pictured below, at take-off). The CEO of Ethiopian Airlines Tewolde Gebremariam was on board. Their other three 787s are being retrofitted.

Associated Press

Qatar Airlines -  May 1st: Doha-Dubai

After operating its first Dreamliner flight Qatar Airways  announced the resumption of daily Boeing 787 services from London to Doha from May 15. The airline said it would expect compensation from Boeing for taking planes that “could not be used“. The airline was already expecting recompense for the three year delay in delivery. CEO Al Baker said:  “I still feel the aircraft should not have been grounded…I think there was reaction due to the unnecessary evacuation of a Japanese aircraft. People are too sensitive to what the social media says”. All five the airline’s Dreamliners will all be in service by May 31.

Al Baker also said: “We are short of airplanes. So we will look at … either purchase or lease of interim airplanes from Airbus or Boeing. We have not yet decided.”

Air India – May 16th: Domestic Flights

The Boeing team arrived in Delhi last Tuesday to fit the new system. The first two craft should be ready to fly by May 10 with the remaining four by the end of the month. The 787s would be required to go through test flights before they are certified by India’s civil aviation regulator and pilots will need to undergo retraining. The carrier will utilise the plane on domestic routes in India from Delhi to Bangalore, Kolkata, and Chennai.  On June 1st, it will start flying from Delhi to both London and Paris. Boeing have agreed to compensate Air India for losses incurred by the state-run carrier according to India’s civil aviation minister, Ajit Singh. Boeing will deliver more of the planes to the carrier over the next few months.

United Airlines – May 31st: Houston - Denver

As previously noted, United has already included the 787 in its schedule from May 31. The airline has indicated, however, they may start 787 flights before May 31st. On June 10th, the twice delayed Denver to Tokyo service will finally start along with Houston to London. On August 1st, the Los Angeles to Tokyo and the long awaited Houston-Lagos will start. This will be followed by Los Angeles to Shanghai on August 2nd.

All Nippon Airways -  June 1st: Tokyo – Frankfurt

During the grounding, ANA cancelled a 3601 flights at a cost of $US92 million. Boeing began installing the battery fix on five grounded 787 jets owned by launch customer All Nippon Airways on April 22. The airline is planning between 100 and 200 round trip test flights through May, before it starts carrying passengers again on scheduled flights. The test flights are intended to re-train 200 of ANA’s Dreamliner pilots after the three-month break. ANA is currently planning to restart 787 service on June 1 on  domestic routes and Tokyo to Frankfurt. On September 1st, it will fly between Tokyo and San Jose and Tokyo to Seattle.

Japan Air Lines – June 1st: Tokyo – Beijing, Singapore, San Diego and Boston

Like ANA, JAL’s 787 JAL will return after completing test flights and pilot re-training. JAL cancelled or reduced 766 flights during the grounding at a cost of 4.8 billion yen. Boeing had full-page advertisements in five national Japanese newspapers on Tuesday: “We express our deep gratitude towards passengers, airlines, suppliers and the investigating authorities in each country . . . for their support on the occasion of resuming operations of the completely modified 787,”

LAN – June 1st: Santiago - Lima and Los Angeles

This will be followed by Service between Santiago and Madrid and Frankfurt later in 2013.

LOT Polish Airlines – June 5th: Warsaw - Chicago

LOT’s January launch of this service turned into a nightmare when its plane was grounded at Washington DC after its first ever flight! The return trip complete with champagne and balloons had to be cancelled! On June 7th, the plane will be used between Warsaw and Toronto, followed by Warsaw to New York on June 30th. Speculation is rife that LOT may be in the sights of  Norwegian Air after their CEO Bjorn Kjos met with Polish government officials. Norwegian themselves will soon be a 787 user (see below).

The Timetable for New Users:

Thomson Airways -July 8th: Manchester - Florida & Glasgow – Cancun

Thomson Airways was initially due to receive the first of its 13 Dreamliners at the end of February. They are tipping a start date ready for the European summer.

Norwegian Air: Oslo - NYC and Bangkok

The airline has ordered three of the 787s. It has recently suggested that one of its forthcoming Boeing 787 Dreamliners may fly under an Irish flag for cost reasons. Norwegian  have also been rumoured to be considering a takeover of LOT.

 Hainan: September: Beijing – Chicago

China’s aviation regulator  is poised to grant approval this month for the 787  to begin commercial service with Chinese airlines.  Hainan has ordered ten but had suggested they may swap future 787 Dreamliners for the larger 747-8s because of the delivery delays. In the meantime,  they should get their first 787 within the next two months as it has already competed Boeing test flights.

China Southern: September: Domestic China

China Southern have also ordered ten of the 787 and three are sitting at the Boeing plants waiting for delivery. China Southern will become the first airline in the world to fly both the 787 and A380 concurrently. After launching on Chinese domestic services, the 787 will probably fly between China and European routes and also to Sydney and Melbourne and possibly Auckland.

Related Posts

April 20th 787 Cleared to Fly!

March 30th: Boeing calls for 787s to fly

March 16th: 787 Battery Fix?

January 25th: The 787 Battery Fire: Step by step

January 18th: All 787s grounded- airline by airline

The FAA (the U.S. regulators) has approved the return of the grounded 787 Dreamliner to the air next week. The authority were clearly satisfied with Boeing’s fixes with US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood saying: “These changes to the 787 battery will ensure the safety of the aircraft and its passengers“. The manufacturer is saying while it does not know what caused the fire, it’s fixes will deal with 80 possible causes.

“Next week, the FAA will issue instructions to operators for making changes to the aircraft and will publish in the Federal Register the final directive that will allow the 787 to return to service with the battery system modifications. The directive will take effect upon publication. The FAA will require airlines that operate the 787 to install containment and venting systems for the main and auxiliary system batteries, and to replace the batteries and their chargers with modified components.”

It is unclear what Japanese regulators will do. They may accept the FAA decision or require additional information from Boeing or demand additions safeguards or require the manufacturer to undertake more test flights.

The F.A.A. approval which has been expected for the last few days, nonetheless came before the National Transportation Safety Board hearings next week on why the battery ignited on the Tarmac at Boston, USA back on January 7. The Board is also investigating to what extent any potential battery risks were underestimated. Officials from Boeing, Thales (battery system), GS-Yuasa (the battery manufacturer) and the FAA have been summoned to Washington.

The 50 jets owned  by seven airlines  will start flying in weeks.
Boeing has 300 technicians deployed in teams around the world to quickly install the modified batteries and other changes on these jets, a process that takes five days per plane. I listed the fixes in a post last month.

United will probably start May 31, as foreshadowed in my blog post last week from Houston to Denver.

ANA have also placed the 787 in their schedules from May 31.

Ethiopian and Qatar have said they want their 787s in the air as soon as possible.

The F.A.A.’s decision will allow Boeing to deliver many of the 34 completed 787s in Charleston and Everett, which airlines are waiting for.

Now let’s see how the passengers feel!

Related Posts

April 6: 787 in weeks???

March 30: Boeing calls for 787s to fly

March 23:  787 Testing

March 16: 787 Battery Fix?

March 8: No 787 for a long, long time

February 23: Where can you find a 787?

February 16: 787 situation gets more serious

 February 9th: 787 Update- one flies, would you fly it?

  February 2: 787 still grounded

 January 25: The 787 Battery Fire: Step by step January 18: All 787s grounded- airline by airline

 January 12: 787 Safety “Concerns”

United Airlines has scheduled a 787 flight from Houston to Denver on May 31. Seats are available for sale. It is planning to resume international 787 flights on June 10, from Denver to Tokyo.

United stated they will make more schedule changes when they know that the plane has been cleared to fly.

Over at Qatar Airways, their CEO announced their 787 fleet will be flying before May 31 with the Wall Street Journal claiming that Qatar is planning to have four of their five 787s in service by April 30.

ANA (All Nippon) CEO Shinichiro Ito told reporters he anticipates their 787s to be flying from June. As the 787 launch customer and owner of the biggest fleet of the planes, they will undoubtedly be the first to have their planes fixed with the improved battery safety system.

Air India plans to have their fleet in the air in May.

All of this is reliant on the US FAA and other air safety bodies clearing the plane to fly. Then each Of the 50 planes currently grounded will need to have the battery fix installed-a process that will probably take two days for each one.

After Boeing has applied the fix, then the airline can commence delivering the backlog of undelivered jets (currently 31).

Related Posts:

April 6: 787 in weeks???

March 30: Boeing calls for 787s to fly

March 23: 787 Testing

March 16: 787 Battery Fix?

March 8: No 787 for a long, long time

February 23: Where can you find a 787?

February 16: 787 situation gets more serious

February 9th: 787 Update- one flies, would you fly it?

February 2: 787 still grounded

January 25: The 787 Battery Fire: Step by stepJanuary 18: All 787s grounded- airline by airline

January 12: 787 Safety “Concerns”

On Friday, “line number 86,” a Boeing-owned  787 Dreamliner built for LOT Polish Airlines took off for a test flight to “demonstrate that the new battery system performs as intended during normal and non-normal flight conditions.”

This was the second test flight of the aeroplane since Boeing unveiled its improvements designed to circumvent the potentially disastrous on board lithium-ion battery fires. The company said its fixes address more than 80 possible causes. “Possible Causes” because no one -Boeing, regulators, airlines knows what caused the fires.

The jet, carrying test equipment, nine crew and  two Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials, took off from the Boeing factory runway near Seattle and flew for just under two hours. The flight took the plane about 1100km (755 miles) along the Pacific Coast following almost the same route as the test flight last week.

Boeing said of the test flight “The crew reported that the certification demonstration plan was straightforward and the flight was uneventful,” This is good news but I am still nervous that the measures have only been tested on aircraft that have flown for less than two hours. How about a couple of seven hours flights. No one knows how the fires were caused. Are we sure that the result is safe?

The company has promised the data will be handed over to the FAA “in the coming days.”  U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who oversees the FAA, explained on Friday that while he believes Beomuigs battery fix is “a “good plan” to fix the battery, he wants to ensure the Dreamliner is safe before allowing the planes back in the air:  “when they complete the tests, they’ll give us the information and we’ll make a decision,”

There are four possible outcomes now:

1. the US Safety authorities are convinced and they allow the aeroplane to be flown, followed by their counterparts in India, Japan and Europe which have also grounded the plane may follow. Each plane will need to have the battery modifications made. This takes about three days. One assumes that launch customer ANA will be the first to have its jets updated. They, therefore could see their  787s flying within the month
2.  Regulators are cautious and restrict the plane from making long trips over water for three to six months until the battery system is proven in flight
3. the authorities are not convinced and ask Boeing for more work which means the planes wont be flying for several more months.  I wonder what Boeing’s back up plan is if this happens?
4. The worst case scenario is that the planes are approved and the battery system fails again. Again, whats the back up plan?

Boeing announced this week their proposed alterations to the 787 lithium-ion batteries to prevent any major incidents in flight. Tellingly, the company has not announced the cause of he problem which suggests they do not still know it. The changes are designed not only to improve safety but reassure regulators, carriers and the public that the plane is safe.

The changes include:

•  improving the insulation between the eight cells in the battery. The batteries’ original insulation was made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) which can withstand heat of 300 degrees Fahrenheit (149 degrees Celsius). The cells will now be wrapped with another insulating material called phenolic glass laminate, made of thin layers of a fiberglass material and resin. This will give with a resistance of more than 900 degrees Fahrenheit (482 degrees Celsius)\
• reducing vibrations inside the battery that might have been one of the possible causes of the short circuits
• gentler charging to minimise “stress”
• installing a new titanium venting system.
•  sealing the batteries in a steel box, which would contain any smoke and fire. The box adds 150 pounds (68 kilograms) which almost negates the point of using the lighter weight battery in the first place. Boeing has been testing the steel casing for three weeks and has found it can withstand three times the pressure generated when a battery “fails”.

If a cell did combust, the steel casing would contain the smoke and fire, the venting tube would open, and the smoke would be pushed outside the plane and out of the cabin.

The FAA Federal Aviation Administration approved these changes on Tuesday. Boeing has since begun a series of certification tests -20 over one to two weeks. Most of the tests will be conducted inside Boeing labs but one will be a test flight.

The company have also disputed the National Transportation Safety Board analysis of the original January 7 Boston airport fire which triggered the plane’s grounding. The NTSB said a short circuit led to “thermal runaway” and fire in the battery. Boeing says it was “thermal propagation.” and state the fire was not in the battery box.

Boeing said yesterday: “We think the likelihood of a repeat event is very unlikely,”

This is either good news or an expression of hope.

We shall see what the FAA says after the tests have concluded.

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No 787 for a long, long time

Seven airlines have fifty 787s grounded at airports across the world:

Tokyo Haneda, Japan: 12
Tokyo Narita, Japan: 7
Mumbai, India: 5
Houston, USA: 4
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia:4
Santiago, Chile: 3
Takamatsu, Japan: 2
Bangalore, India: 1
Boston, USA: 1
Chicago,USA: 1
Doha, Qatar: 1
Frankfurt, Germany: 1
Kumamoto, Japan: 1
London Heathrow, UK: 1
Los Angeles, USA: 1
Matsuyama, Japan: 1
Warsaw, Poland: 1

In addition, Boeing has about 20 undelivered 787s.

On January 7, 2013  a JAL Boeing 787 landed at Boston Logan airport. It had flown as JAL008 from Tokyo Narita.  The 787 had logged only 22  pressurisation cycles (basically the number of times it had been in the air) and 169 flight hours. It parked at the gate at 1006am local time. All 183 passengers and 11 crew left the plane. At 1032am  the Cleaning and maintenance crew noticed smoke in cabin. Three minutes later, a mechanic noted flames coming from APU battery in the aft (rear) electronics bay. The  Airport Rescue & Fire Fighting were notified  at 1037am and the fire crews arrived three minutes later at 1040. At  12:19 pm  the fire and rescue personnel reported that the event was “controlled”.

Deborah Hersman, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, stated yesterday that “the expectation in aviation is t0 never experience a fire on board an aircraft. In two weeks time we saw two cases of battery failures on a 787 and the grounding of the entire fleet by the FAA. the significance of these events cannot be understated”

She further said that “We are early in our investigation, we have a lot of activities to undertake”. What the NTSB can say is that the lithium-ion battery short circuited and there was a thermal runaway, a situation in which a significant temperature increase can cause a destructive chain reaction. The investigation has not revealed the underlying cause. There are two shifts of NTSB investigators working on the investigation. One team is in Japan and one is in the USA. They are also cooperating with the JTSB who are investigating the ANA battery incident which occurred January 16. The FAA and Boeing are also conducting investigations. This could mean a long grounding of the 787.

Video of the Press Conference:

Link to the NTSB Investigation site: http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/2013/boeing_787/boeing_787.html

The NTSB Twitter account is: @ntsb

Related Posts:

All 787s grounded

787 Safety “Concerns”

Qatar and United 787 Electrical Problem

JAL airline #2 for the 787

ANA on track for first 787 ever!

ANA has surveyed 780 of of its passengers who have flown the 787 between Tokyo, Japan and Frankfurt, Germany. A massive 98 percent said they wanted another chance to fly the Dreamliner, no matter which airline it belonged to. One quarter  stated they would  go out of their way to board the new aircraft again. Now I am really jealous!

Other key findings:

• Cabin lighting exceeded expectations for 90 per cent of passengers
• 90 per cent said air quality and cabin pressure met or exceeded their expectations
• 80 per cent said the amount of personal space met or exceeded expectations
• half of all passengers said lavatories  exceeded expectations
• Smoothness of the flight was as good as or better than expected for 87 per cent of passengers
• Four in ten passengers felt that headroom was better than expected
• Almost four in ten felt the large windows (20% larger than other aircraft) exceeded their expectations.  For Frequent fliers, this rose to 54 per cent

One other interesting fact was 12 per cent of passengers had never heard of the plane before boarding.

The survey results are here. It looks like Boeing have a winner!

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JAL & ANA 787 Updates

See 787 handed over to ANA – LIVE

At the Farnborough Air show this week: Boeing announced they took orders for 396 aeroplanes with a value of approximately 37 billion dollars US.

Airbus bagged less then a third of that with 115 planes ordered valued at 17 billion dollars US.  To be fair, 150 of the Boeing planes ordered are from one airline: United. Taking that order out, Boeing at 246 still got orders for more than double the number of planes of its European rival. The  737Max has been selling well with  firm MAX of  649 jets.  Boeing stated that  the MAX has commitments for more than 1,200 jets when non binding orders are included.

It reverses the situation at the 2011 Paris Show when Airbus sold $72 billion worth of planes, almost $50 billion more than Boeing.

In doing some research about failed Hungarian carrier Malév, I came across this amazing video.  On August 20, 2006 a Malév 737 followed by a Sky Europe plane flew at a low altitude over Budapest, Hungary. This ten minute video has some stunning view of this beautiful city. The two planes then flew side by side.

I assume it was done for the sixtieth anniversay of the founding of the successor to Malév.

Ironically, both airlines are gone now.