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.

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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

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).

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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”

Further to my post last week, Boeing plans to conduct two flight tests of its revamped 787 battery system.The flights would depart from and return to Paine Field, the airport in Everett, Washington, where the 787 Dreamliner is made.

One flight would collect data for its own usage. The data from the second flight would be submitted for FAA approval.

If successful, then this would be a step forward to Boeing getting the aircraft approved for service within weeks.

None of the airlines using 787s have begun planning to get their planes up yet. In fact ANA told Reuters this week that the timetable was a best-case scenario and was too uncertain for it use in planning.The airline has asked for cash refunds in compensation for the losses inflicted by the worldwide grounding in place since January. Air India will take the same stand.

JAL said last Tuesday that the 787′s grounding could take $11.6 million off the airline’s operating profit for April-May.

The 787 grounding has now been in place for a month and it looks like Boeing faces months more. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has indicated that it will be weeks  before it identifies the causes of the thermal runaway in the 787′s lithium-ion-batteries. Boeing conducted a second test flight of the 787 from Seattle’s Boeing field across Washington state last Monday for an  hour and 29 minutes. The flight was uneventful. Boeing advised that the flight data is being analysed but did not release any details.

Boeing is basically guaranteed not to be able to deliver anywhere near their original 2013 target of 60 planes. Norwegian Air Shuttle has announced that Boeing will not deliver their first two aircraft due April and June with no new target date available. The 787 is the key to their future expansion as they launch their first ever long haul routes. Other airlines  due to get  their first 787s in 2013 were:

• Aeromexico
• Air China
• British Airways – expecting four  from May
• China Southern Airlines
• Thompson expecting five from February

The existing operators All Nippon Airways, Ethiopian (1) Japan Airlines, Air India, LOT Polish Airlines (3) , LAN, Qatar Airways and United Airlines are all due to receive more planes to add to their existing 787 fleets. This means they will need to set about finding other aircraft to fill the shortfall caused by the grounding,

LOT president Sebastian Mikosz has announced that their two 787s will be grounded until October as they cannot expect to be able to schedule them for the European summer. This is a blow for the financially troubled carrier which was relying in part on the 787 to revitalise its business. One of their planes is in Warsaw and the other in Washington DC where it had arrived after its maiden voyage to the USA.

In the meantime, Airbus have announced they will not use lithium-ion-batteries on the new Airbus 350 XWB instead using “the proven and mastered” nickel cadmium main batteries. Boeing have said they are still “confident in the safety and reliability of  the lithium-ion batteries,“. We shall see.

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It has now been over a week since the 787 flew. For the eight carriers that have the 787 in service, another week of no revenue from the plane. The National Transportation Safety Board investigators have not yet found the reason for the  January 7 fire at Boston airport. U.S. safety investigators ruled out last Sunday that the cause came from was  excess voltage and expanded their investigation to look at the battery’s charger and the jet’s auxiliary power unit. One of the most chilling learnings for me was that Securaplane, the company that makes the charger suffered millions of dollars of damages in November 2006 when a lithium-ion battery being tested exploded and sparked a fire that burned their administrative building to the ground.

Boeing have suspended all deliveries after delivering only one 787 this year so far. Its target for 2013 was 60 jets to go to new 787 customers British Airways,  Hainan Airlines,  Norwegian Air Shuttle, Royal Brunei and Thomson, and existing operators such as Air India, ANA, JAL, Qatar and United.  Tom Enders, CEO of EADS, the parent company of Airbus, isn’t ‘happy’ about the grounding of rival Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner. He stated that grounding 787 isn’t “good for the industry.”

Air India have announced they are looking for bids by February 5 to sell seven 787-800 Dreamliner planes to leasing companies and hire them back. This move will free up cash for the airline. They currently have six on the ground after India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation ordered them to cease flying and one was supposed to be delivered this month. The jets will be grounded until at least February 17.

All Nippon Airways (ANA) with 17 of the jets in its fleet has cancelled 459 domestic and international flights costing the carrier about $US15.4 million in lost revenue. The airline announced Thursday, it is prepared to recoup from Boeing whatever damages it suffers from flight cancellations and other costs. ANA has advised they replaced batteries on its 787s ten times because they didn’t charge properly or connections with electrical systems failed. It had  informed Boeing of the replacements.

Ethiopian Airlines, have said they have not experienced any problems with the plane’s lithium ion batteries but have grounded their four 787 planes

Japan Airlines (JAL) chair Masaru Onishi was quoted by Aviation Week as saying “We hope that the time it takes to fix the problem will be no more than a month, or two months maximum,”  When asked if JAL will be seeking financial compensation from Boeing, the Chair said, “We don’t want to focus on such issues now.”  

LOT Polish Airlines is under scrutiny with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk demanded the country’s treasurer get the airline on a secure financial footing. Last year, LOT received an emergency government loan from to keep it operating. The 787 was aimed at helping improve the airline’s image and profitability. In a statement on Jan. 17, LOT indicated it would consider seeking compensation from Boeing for the grounding of its two Dreamliners, although it did not indicate the amount. 

 Qatar Airways was due to start the first commercial 787 flight to Australia on Friday 1st February but this, of course, has been postponed

United Airlines has six grounded planes. They were due to start a non stop 787 service from Houston, Texas, USA to Lagos, Nigeria on January 31. This has been indefinitely postponed.

The question is: would you fly the Dreamliner?

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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

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All 787s grounded

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Qatar and United 787 Electrical Problem

JAL airline #2 for the 787

ANA on track for first 787 ever!

After a series of highly publicised problems including an ANA emergency landing on Wednesday 16 January, all 50 of the 787s across the world have been grounded. On Wednesday 16th January, 2013, US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered the grounding of all US-registered 787s and recommended other jurisdictions do the same:

As a result of an in-flight, Boeing 787 battery incident earlier today in Japan, the FAA will issue an emergency airworthiness directive (AD) to address a potential battery fire risk in the 787 and require operators to temporarily cease operations.  Before further flight, operators of U.S.-registered, Boeing 787 aircraft must demonstrate to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that the batteries are safe.    

The battery from the ANA 787 left next to an undamaged battery. Pic: Japan Transport Safety Board

The European Aviation Safety Agency have followed the FAA’s grounding order. India also followed the FAA directive. The FAA began a  comprehensive review of all aspects of the Boeing 787 last week.  No one yet knows if the problem is with the batteries themselves or the power source or the charging system or the 787′s electrical system.The airliner relies more on electrical power to run on-board systems than any other plane. The agency expects to have some preliminary data early next week.

The problem needs to be fixed before the public begin to doubt the aircraft’s safety. No one wants a repeat of the UK Comet scenario where a technically advanced plane which broke speed records,  proved to be unsafe.  Three Comets imploded mid flight in 1953 and 1954. All aboard perished. By the time a safer variant was launched, the public were spooked. Ironically, the grounding of the Comet, gave Boeing the opening it needed to get the 707 into extensive service.

Production of the 787 continues but deliveries have been suspended by Boeing. The last groundings of an aircraft by the FAA was of the DC-10 in 1979 for a month, after crash in Chicago.

Air India  -27 ordered.  Six grounded on Thursday

Air India grounded their planes  after instructions from India’s  Director General of Civil Aviation. The airline noted that they have had none of the battery problems that ANA, JAL and United have had. At a Press Conference on Friday,  India’s Civil Aviation Minister said Friday that Air India will seek “some kind of compensation” The Minister said Boeing is liable. He also indicated that the airline is still seeking delivery of their remaning order. Air India said it would use other planes on its scheduled 787 flights.

ANA:  50 ordered. 17 grounded on Wednesday

All Nippon Airways grounded their fleet on Wednesday after instruments on flight 692 from Yamaguchi to Tokyo  indicated a battery error. ANA said a smell was detected in the cockpit and the cabin, and pilots received emergency warning of smoke in the forward electronic compartment. After the incident last week on Boston where a JAL 787 had a fire on board, the airline took no chances. The plane made an emergency landing and all 129 passengers and eight crew were evacuated via the plane’s inflatable slides 

Ethiopian Airlines: 10 ordered. Four grounded Thursday 

Ethiopian Airlines said they “ have not encountered the type of problems such as those experienced by the other operators. However, as an extra precautionary safety measure and in line with its commitment of putting safety above all else, Ethiopian has decided to pull out its four Dreamliners from operation,” They were the last of the 787 operators to ground their planes.

JAL: 45 ordered. Seven grounded Wednesday

Japan Airlines  grounded their fleet until at least until 25 January. The carrier will be deploying  767s and 777s on 787 flights and has also cancelled services on its Tokyo -San Diego route.

LAN Airlines -three grounded Wednesday

LAN followed the FAA directive and its planes were grounded after United’s.

LOT Polish Airlines: Eight ordered. Two grounded Wednesday. 

The timing of the announcement was unfortunate and bizarre for LOT. A 787 was en route on its maiden from Warsaw Chicago flight.  It never made the return trip and is now stranded in the USA. LOT Airlines have said they will seek compensation from Boeing for the grounding.

Qatar Airways: 30 ordered. Five grounded Thursday

I would love to be a fly on the wall of the office of Akbar Al Baker  the Qatar Airway’s CEO. He has already been very unhappy about the delays and technical problems associated with the 787. His official statement this week said:  “In light of recent events surrounding the Boeing 787 Dreamliner worldwide, we are actively working with Boeing and the regulators to restore full customer confidence in the 787. Qatar Airways will resume 787 operations when we are clear that the aircraft meets the full requirements of the Airworthiness Directive and our standards which assure the safety of our passengers and crew at all times.”

The grounding puts in doubt the airline’s planned February 1 launch of a Doha to Perth 787 service.

United Airlines: 50 Ordered. Six grounded Wednesday

Twelve hours after the Japanese fleets were grounded, the US regulators announcement came and United was the third airline keeping their planes earth bound.

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One hundred passengers joined Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker for the delivery flight of their 787 from Seattle to Doha on November 17. I am in no way envious! Qatar are the Middle Eastern launch customer for the 787 having ordered 60 of the planes - 30 firm with options for 30 more. Qatar is rated a five star airline and has been nominated airline of the year twice by Skytrax. They are the newest entrant to One World. I have yet to fly them.

 Qatar Airways had refused to take delivery of the first five of their 787s until  a defects within the Dreamliner GE designed GEnx engines, had been rectified.  General Electric Co. told aircraft operators in September to make another round of inspections on engines installed on the 787  and newer 747 models following an engine failure on a Boeing freighter aircraft resulted in an aborted  takeoff in Shanghai in September. This follows a failure in July when an engine on a jet being tested before delivery in South Carolina failed due to cracking in the engine’s fan shaft.

I guess the engine issues have been resolved because Qatar’s 787 commenced commercial service on selected Doha – Dubai flights on November 20  to familiarise flight crews with the aircraft. It will later be deployed long-haul on one of the five daily London Heathrow services, followed by Zurich, Frankfurt and Delhi. It is interesting how a big fuss was made by Qatar about the engine failures but nothing was said about the fixes!

The Qatar 787 has 254 seats in a two-class layout:

• 22 seats in Business Class in a 1-2-1 configuration. Width: 22″ Pitch: 80″
• 232 seats in Economy Class:  3-3-3. Width: 16.9″ Pitch: 32″

This compares to Ethiopians’ 270 passengers which is the most squeezy Boeing 787. ANA only has 158 seats on board, by comparison.

Each seat is equipped with AVOD entertainment system with USB, MP3 and  laptop power outlets. Wifi and GSM will be available to all passengers during flights. Tv Screens are 10.6″ in Economy and 17″ in Business.

Boeing now has previously delivered 29 787s to seven  customers (ANA, JAL, LAN, Ethiopian, Air India, United and LOT).

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The 787 heads to Ethiopia

LAN gets 787

JAL airline #2 for the 787

ANA on track for first 787 ever!

Relevant Link

My Pinterest 787 Board: http://pinterest.com/martinjcowling/the-787/

Norwegian Air Shuttle  began selling tickets for their New York JFK and Bangkok Boeing 787 services on Thursday November 8 for flights from May 30th, 2013. Some very cheap seats were available -and they were selling fast.

The carrier will fly between Oslo (Norway) and Stockholm (Sweden) three times a week. Seats on Norwegian’s 787 will be nine across 3-3-3 in economy class with a 31″ pitch. The airline is also introducing a Premium Cabin on the 787,  configured six across 2-2-2 with a 46″ pitch. Up to now, the airline has been all one class. All seats will have an individual entertainment system. Meals are included in the Premium fare and with the Flex fare. The meals can be pre ordered  for an extra fee by passengers travelling on the airline’s lowest fare.

Headquartered in Bergen, Norway, Norwegian is the second largest airline in Scandinavia and serves more than 115 airports in 30 countries. The airline started as a small regional carrier in 1993. In 2002, it adopted its current name and began its expansion with destinations and passengers numbers rapidly climbing.  The airline transported 15.7 million people in 2011 compared with 5.1million just five years before.

The carrier currently operates 68 Boeing 737s. Their livery is white  with a distinctive red nose. Each plane has a famous Scandinavian on the tail including author Karen Blixen, explorer Helge Ingstad and artist Edvard Munch. Currently, 47 of their aircraft are WiFi equipped. By March 2013, their entire 737-800 fleet will have in-flight WiFi.  Norwegian makes available its wifi free of charge for all passengers.

The airline has eight Boeing 787s on order.  It is purchasing three and leasing five. The delivery of their first one will be in April 2013  followed by the second  June 2013 and the third one in November 2013. Four more will be delivered in 2014 and  the final one in 2015. The new 787s are part of a massive fleet expansion at Norwegian. Norwegian Air Shuttle have orders and options for a further 222 new planes including:

•  100 Boeing 737 MAX-8
• 22 Boeing 737-800
•  100 Airbus A320 neo

These orders represent the largest order in European aviation history.

To operate the 787 services, they have formed a subsidiary: Norwegian Long Haul. I note that Rishworth Aviation have started advertising on behalf of Norwegian, for  Thailand based 787 Captains and First Officers. I assume that Norwegian are aiming to hire Thai nationality pilots to reduce their wage costs.

I have not yet flown Norwegian -nor the 787! Maybe I can try both in 2013 – If I can get a seat!

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Some good news for United Airlines.

On August 19, their first Boeing 787 Dreamliner took off from Boeing’s Everett field in, Washington state for its first test flight. The plane cruised around Seattle for three hours as all aspects of the craft’s backup and safety systems were checked. The plane will be delivered to United in late September and will be followed by 49 others.

United will be the fifth airline in the world to get the 787 (after ANA, JAL, Ethiopian, LAN) and the first US carrier to have it. They will be flying Denver to Tokyo from March, 2013. I am not sure where I will see it between September and March. but United have said they be rotating the  jet on a series of domestic sectors.  It will also be deployed on Houston to Lagos in tandem with the 777 on that service. The one flight we will not see is the originally promised Houston to Auckland. This is even despite Hawaiian Air’s  decision to start serving the New Zealand city.

Photo from United.com More photos of the flight are at Airline Reporter. For interior shots check out USAToday.

United have opted for 219 seats in a three class layout on its 787s.  There are 36 Business First seats, up front arranged 2/2/2 for the  first six rows. This is followed by  63 economy plus seats including an exit row and 120 Economy seats arranged 3/3/3.

This compares to 270 seats in two classes on Ethiopian and 186 on JAL and 144 on ANA.