TOKYO--All Nippon Airways Co. (9202.TO) said Sunday it is asking
Boeing Co. (BA) to speed delivery of three 777 jets it had
initially expected to receive during the next fiscal year, as the
airline worst hit by the grounding of Boeing's 787 Dreamliners
seeks to minimize the impact.
ANA had initially been scheduled to receive the 777 planes early
in the fiscal year starting April 1. Although negotiations with
Boeing are still continuing, ANA may be able to receive the
aircraft by the end of March, said spokeswoman Megumi Tezuka.
"What we are asking Boeing to do is to push us higher in the
waiting list for deliveries," Ms. Tezuka said.
The Boeing negotiations were first reported on Sunday by the
Nikkei Shimbun business daily, which cited ANA corporate-planning
chief Shinzo Shimizu.
ANA operates 17 of the high-tech Dreamliners, which have been
grounded since mid January after batteries on two 787s--one
operated by ANA-- overheated and burned. Investigators from the
U.S. and Japan have been working to pinpoint the cause of the
troubles, but so far have been unsuccessful, leaving it unclear how
long the grounding will drag on.
ANA, which announced earnings results on Thursday, said it saw a
Y1.4 billion ($15.1 million) decrease in revenue from the
cancellation of 459 Dreamliner flights in January. The airline is
planning hundreds more cancellations this month. But ANA said it
can't determine what the mid-term impact of the Dreamliner problems
will be, since it doesn't know when the planes will be back in the
air.
ANA and domestic rival Japan Airlines Co. (9201.TO) between them
operate nearly half of all the Dreamliners currently shipped.
Write to Takashi Mochizuki at takashi.mochizuki@dowjones.com
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