Dreamliner fleet grounded until summer
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
11.02.2013 11:17
LOT Polish Airlines has confirmed that Boeing 787 Dreamliners will not be in service until this summer at the earliest, following safety fears.
Dreamliner: photo -wikipedia
LOT was supposed to have five of the new Dreamliner planes at its disposal by the end of March.
The first flew from Warsaw to Chicago on 16 January, but had to be grounded after a battery fault occurred during an All Nippon Airways (ANA) Dreamliner flight to Tokyo.
Tomasz Balcerzak, a member of LOT's technical board, told the TVN24 news channel that “we will have to wait a bit longer for the Dreamliners,” but claimed that passengers “will be able to reserve tickets for the summer season.”
As a result of the delays, LOT has extended its lease on the old Boeing 767 planes, which the Dreamliner model was intended to replace. LOT's lease on the 767s was originally set to end in March this year.
However, Boeing has now insisted that LOT extends the lease of the 767s for at least six months, regardless of whether the Dreamliners are in action by then.
Last month's inaugural flight from Warsaw to Chicago marked LOT as the first airline in Europe to use Dreamliners, which can take up to 290 passengers, and are designed to be 20 percent more fuel effective than 767s. (nh)