Ethiopia airlines first to resume Dreamliner flights

Ethiopian airline Dreamliner

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Ethiopian Airlines on Saturday became the first carrier to resume flying the Boeing 787 Dreamliners that have been grounded worldwide for the past three months due to battery problems.

The Ethiopian carrier flew one of the next-generation aircraft from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, a day before All Nippon Airlines (ANA), which has the world’s largest fleet of Dreamliners, is set to conduct a test flight in Japan.

“I am very happy to see the airplane is back to the air now and I am very happy also we are the first one,” Ethiopian Airlines CEO, Tewolde Gebremariam told journalists ahead of take off.

Tewolde Gebremariam , CEO Ethiopian Airline speaks on the resumed flights. AFP
Tewolde Gebremariam , CEO Ethiopian Airline speaks on the resumed flights. AFP

The US Federal Aviation Authority on Thursday issued formal approval of Boeing’s 787 battery fix, clearing the way for the troubled aircraft to fly again after the prolonged grounding.

The directive from the FAA to ground the 50 Dreamliners in operation worldwide came after a series of safety scares with the aircraft, including an emergency landing by ANA in January following a battery malfunction.

Ethiopian Airlines has four Dreamliners, which Tewolde said would all resume service in the coming weeks after being retrofitted with new batteries.

“This is the first airplane which has completed the work,” he told reporters, adding that work has started on the company’s other three 787s.

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Each of the aircraft are set to receive a new battery, which is encased, allowing the plane to continue flying in the event of a malfunction.

“We’ve fixed the battery, we’ve now contained the battery, so for some chance that there is a failure with the battery, it’s contained, it’s isolated, the airplane will be able to continue flying,” Boeing’s VP of Marketing for commercial airplanes, Randy Tinseth, told AFP at the airport.

Despite the previous safety scares with the aircraft, he said customers have no reason to feel nervous about flying the Dreamliner.

“I can’t wait to get back on the aircraft, and I wouldn’t hesitate to bring my family on it,” he said.

ANA, which already has 17 Dreamliners — the world’s largest fleet — and dozens more on order, will test one of its modified Dreamliners on Sunday.

The ANA flight, to and from Tokyo’s Haneda airport, will have the company’s chairman Shinichiro Ito and Boeing’s CEO Ray Conner on board, with both of them anxious to put the damaging crisis behind them.

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