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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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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