Boeing says Air India unhappy with 787 Dreamliner's reliability

Mumbai: Boeing Co. said Air India Ltd is unhappy with the performance of its 787s Dreamliners after some of the planes suffered glitches in recent months.

“Yes, they are not happy with the reliability portion, neither are we,” said Dinesh Keskar, a senior vice-president at the Chicago-based planemaker, said in an interview at the Singapore Airshow on Tuesday. “Over the last few months, we understood which are the components that were causing issues, which software needs to be upgraded.”

The Dreamliner has experienced a series of malfunctions since its debut in 2011, including a three-month grounding of the global fleet last year after battery meltdowns on two planes. The plane’s fuel efficiency is key to cutting costs at Air India, which hasn’t made an annual profit since 2007.

Earlier this month, Air India diverted one of its 787s to Kuala Lumpur as a precaution after the plane developed a software fault on a flight to New Delhi from Melbourne. “Boeing is upgrading software and changing some components on Air India 787s whenever the planes can be taken out of service,” Keskar said, adding that a 13th Dreamliner will be delivered to the carrier this month.

Air India is planning to seek compensation from Boeing after the carrier found that its 787s aren’t’ as fuel efficient as the planemaker had claimed while selling them, The Times of India reported on Tuesday, citing officials it didn’t identify. “Fuel efficiency of the Dreamliner is improving after earlier models didn’t quite make the mark on this count,” Keskar said.

G. P. Rao, a spokesman at Air India, didn’t answer two calls to his mobile phone. The state-run carrier has ordered 27 Dreamliners.

Empty Jet

“In January, Japan Airlines Co., one of the biggest operators of the Dreamliner, found a battery cell in an empty jet smoking during preflight maintenance. Boeing needs to improve the reliability of the Dreamliner to satisfy customers,” Mike Fleming, vice president of 787 services and support, said 24 January.

Last year’s grounding added to a history of setbacks for the Dreamliner, whose entry into commercial service in 2011 for Tokyo-based ANA Holdings Inc. was more than 3-1/2 years late because of production snags and other delays. Mumbai-based Air India has sparred with Boeing over compensation for tardy deliveries.

The 787 is the first jetliner built chiefly of composite materials rather than traditional aluminum. It also relies to a greater degree than other jets on electricity to run the plane’s systems, putting a spotlight on the lithium-ion batteries. Last year, an Air India 787 developed windshield cracks during landing.

Keskar said Boeing sees potential aircraft deals in India later this year. The company is in advanced talks with discount carrier SpiceJet Ltd. and Jet Airways (India) Ltd, the nation’s biggest publicly traded airline, to sell 737 Max jets.

“Boeing will increase its prediction for India plane demand in the next couple of months,” Keskar said in an interview to Bloomberg Television’s Haslinda Amin in Singapore on Tuesday. The company had forecast last year that carriers in the Asian nation will need 1,450 new aircraft, worth $175 billion over the next two decades. Bloomberg