TOKYO--Japan's transport ministry Friday said it is planning to
lift the order grounding Boeing Co.'s (BA) Dreamliner 787 flights
by Japanese airlines, following an expected decision by its U.S.
counterpart to do the same.
The ministry's decision will effectively allow the return to
service of the bulk of the global Dreamliner fleet, more than three
months after burning batteries on two Japanese planes prompted
regulators to halt all flights. Japan's two big airlines, All
Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines Co. (9201.TO), together operate
24 of the 50 Dreamliner jets in operation.
The formal decision will come following an official sign-off on
flights by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, expected later
Friday, U.S. time.
Still, the two carriers aren't expected to start flying their
787 jets commercially until around June, as the airlines conduct
test flights and mull measures to ensure passengers feel safe on
the planes. The two Japanese airlines Monday began work to install
modified batteries on their 787 planes with Boeing's engineers
following the approval by the FAA last Friday on fixes to the
batteries.
JAL has said it expects to take several weeks to finish the
fixes on its seven Dreamliners. ANA estimates that work on its 17
Boeing 787s will be completed by the end of May, a person with
knowledge of the 787 operations, has said.
"We can't just tell our customers to fly on the planes as soon
as we're finished fixing them," Osamu Shinobe said in a recent
interview. Mr. Shinobe is the newly appointed chief executive of
All Nippon Airways, which now operates under recently established
ANA Holdings Inc. (9202.TO).
Ethiopian Airlines (EAIR.YY) is reportedly set to be the world's
first carrier to resume the 787 commercial flights, starting on
Saturday.
While Japanese carriers are rushing to win customers back, they
will start negotiations with Boeing on compensation stemming from
the grounding.
JAL estimated that the grounding would cut operating profit by
700 million yen ($7 million) in the fiscal year ended March. ANA
said that the suspension resulted in a loss of Y1.4 billion in
revenue in January.
The two airlines are scheduled to report their earnings on
Tuesday.
Write to Yoshio Takahashi at yoshio.takahashi@dowjones.com
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