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Tui puts contingency plans in place for Dreamliner

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Tui puts contingency plans in place for Dreamliner

By Phil Davies

Tui puts contingency plans in place for DreamlinerTui Travel has no plans to cancel its order for 13 Boeing 787 Dreamliners.

But the travel group is having to make contingency plans in case deliveries are delayed following trouble with batteries on 787s flown by Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways

Chief executive Peter Long said: “Our view is that this is the right airplane for us and we do not intend to change our order for the aircraft.

“We wait to see that these short-term issues are resolved with the regulatory authorities … but we don’t have visibility around how long that will take.”

He spoke ahead of the US Federal Aviation Administration granting Boeing the go-ahead to carry out 787 test flights.

Tui hopes to introduce the aircraft in May and plans to operate the aircraft on long-haul routes from Manchester, Gatwick, Glasgow and East Midlands to destinations including Florida, Mexico, Barbados, Cuba, Kenya and Thailand.

Long said: “Our priority is running our own programme and we will have to determine whether this is going to happen in May. We are building contingency plans because we have to.”

Regulators around the world grounded the new generation 787 in mid-January after a battery fire in Boston and a second incident involving a battery on a flight in Japan.

The FAA said the test flights will help collect data about battery performance “while the aircraft is airborne”.

A Boeing spokesman said the information will “support the continuing investigations into the cause of the recent 787 battery incidents”.

“We are confident that the 787 is safe to operate for this flight test activity,” he added.

The FAA said it had asked Boeing to conduct extensive pre-flight testing and inspections and that the flights would be conducted “in defined airspace over unpopulated areas”.

But the US National Transportation Safety Board said tests carried out by Boeing on Dreamliner batteries, when they were first certified, missed the high risk of fire.

The tests underestimated the frequency of “smoke events” in the lithium ion batteries.

NTSB chairman Deborah Hersman said that Boeing’s safety checks suggested that a smoke event would occur less than once every 10 million flight hours.

However, 787s have only clocked up 100,000 hours of flight-time since entering commercial services, and have experienced two battery fires.

Hersman said that “the failure rate was higher than predicted as part of the certification process and the possibility that a short circuit in a single cell could propagate to adjacent cells and result in smoke and fire must be reconsidered”.

Dreamliner probe could take weeks

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Dreamliner probe could take weeks

By Phil Davies

Dreamliner probe could take weeksIt may take “weeks” to complete an investigation into battery problems that hit two Boeing 787 Dreamliners, according to the US National Transportation Safety Board.

A battery on a Japan Airlines 787 caught fire, while a malfunction forced an All Nippon Airways Dreamliner to make an emergency landing last month.

The incidents led to the grounding all 50 of the 787s in use. The NTSB said that the battery being used in the 787s may not necessarily be unsafe.

NTSB head Deborah Hersman said: “I would not want to categorically say that these batteries are not safe.

“Any new technology, any new design, there are going to be some inherent risks. The important thing is to mitigate them.”

She added that the NTSB was “running through the macro level to the microscopic level on this battery”. “But I think we are probably weeks away from being able to tell people here’s what exactly happened and what needs to change.”

A Boeing spokesman told the BBC the firm was “choosing not to comment on Ms Hersman’s remarks as the matter was under active investigation”.

Meanwhile, Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said problems with the 787 had done nothing to alter the airline’s orders and options for 50 Dreamliners.

He told broadcaster ABC in Australia: “We believe that Boeing are a great airline manufacturing company, they’re a great engineering company and they will fix this problem eventually.

“They’re still producing the aircraft, so the production line hasn’t stopped. They have stopped delivering aircraft to customers.

“Our aircraft are due to arrive, the first one in August. We haven’t been advised of any delay at this stage.”

Dreamliner problems force Japan Airlines route postponement

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Dreamliner problems force Japan Airlines route postponement

By Phil Davies

Dreamliner problems force Japan Airlines route postponementJapan Airlines (Jal) has been forced to postpone the launch of Helsinki-Tokyo flights due to the ongoing worldwide grounding of Boeing 787 Dreamliners.

The four-times-a-week service was due to start on February 25 but has been put on hold “in view of necessary adjustments to Jal’s international routes utilising the Boeing 787 aircraft” since the US Federal Aviation Authority imposed the grounding following an emergency landing by an All Nippon Airways 787 on January 16.

Jal said: “The rescheduled date of opening of Jal’s Narita-Helsinki service will be announced at a later time and customers with confirmed reservations on concerned flights will be informed about alternative options.

“Jal apologises to all customers and related parties for the inconvenience and concerns caused as a result of recent issues with the 787 fleet.”