Emirates Business
ANA Holdings Inc., the world’s biggest operator of Boeing Co.’s Dreamliner jet, will halt some services using the 787 saying it found an issue with the plane’s engines.
Japan’s biggest airline will stop some services starting on Friday, Wataru Yoshioka, a spokesman for the Tokyo-based company said on Thursday. The airline’s fleet of 50 787s are all powered by Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc engines.
ANA will elaborate on the issue, including the number of planes affected at a press briefing at 6 p.m. in Tokyo, Yoshioka said. The airline had an engine problem on a Boeing 787 in February, when the plane returned to Kuala Lumpur airport after receiving a warning that the temperature of the exhaust gas from its right engine was very high, forcing the engine to be shut down.
The engine problem that prompted the airline to take the decision is similar to the one discovered in Kuala Lumpur, the spokesman said.
Boeing and Rolls-Royce didn’t immediately respond to e-mails seeking comment on ANA’s decision. All 787s worldwide were grounded for three months by regulators in 2013 after lithium-ion battery meltdowns on the jets. Boeing came up with a fix for the problem, allowing the planes to resume flights. The global grounding marked the first time in more than three decades when an entire airplane model was pulled out of service.
The same year, Japan Airlines Co., the nation’s second-largest airline, replaced 787s on two routes after Boeing ordered Dreamliner jets with General Electric Co. engines to keep away from certain weather.
Japan Airlines, also known as JAL, uses different engines and doesn’t have any problems with them at this time, said Jian Yang, a spokesman for the carrier.