Dreamliner Grounding 'Cost Carrier ANA £53m'

As All Nippon Air hits turbulence because of rising fuel prices, it reveals the grounding of its Boeing 787 fleet cost it £53m.

 

Japan's All Nippon Airways (ANA) has said the grounding of its Boeing Dreamliner fleet has cost it 8bn yen (£53m).

The announcement comes after the carrier made a second-quarter loss of 6.6bn yen (£44m).
It reversed a small year-earlier profit, despite a 4.4% rise in revenue to 358.3bn yen (£2.38bn).
"The primary reason for the increase in operating expenses was a rise in fuel costs due to the weakening of the yen," it said in a statement.
"Operating revenues were also held back by the suspension of Boeing 787 services for part of the period."

In early January a Japan Airlines (JAL) plane caught fire in Boston

ANA and domestic rival Japan Airlines, which reports its quarterly results Wednesday, were sideswiped by the grounding of Boeing's new aircraft that began in January.
After a long-running probe the planes were allowed to fly again in June.
The carriers at the time operated about half the Dreamliners in service and had to cancel hundreds of flights in the wake of the crisis, which was caused by problems with the plane's lithium battery.
The carrier and Japan Airlines have said they will seek compensation from Boeing having lost a combined total of more than 22.5bn yen (£149m) in revenue.

The fire at Heathrow was suspected to have been caused by a beacon battery

"The impact of the problems was bigger than originally expected," Kei Yamamura, an aviation analyst with SMBC Friend Securities, said.
"But this factor will fade toward the end of the fiscal year as long as these issues don't come up again."
Although issues related to the auxiliary power supply lithium battery appear to have been resolved, emergency locator transmitters (ELT) used by Boeing now appear to be under scrutiny.
A fuselage fire on an Ethiopian Airways 787 at Heathrow airport on July 12 was pinpointed to the ELT manufactured by Honeywell.
The US Federal Aviation Administration advised on the emergency beacon wiring being checked.
Boeing has subsequently told airlines up to 1,200 aircraft across a range of models have the ELTs fitted.