27 May 2013

All Nippon Airways resumes flights with Dreamliner

1:07 pm on 27 May 2013

A Japanese airline has resumed commercial flights using the Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft - four months after such planes were grounded.

The BBC reports the first flight by All Nippon Airways was from Sapporo to Tokyo on Sunday evening.

Other airlines have already resumed 787 flights, but All Nippon Airways is Boeing's biggest Dreamliner customer, with 17 planes.

An overheating battery on an ANA flight led 787s being grounded in January. It followed a separate battery-related emergency on a Japan Airlines flight.

The planes have since been modified with new battery systems and have been given approval to fly again by the US Federal Aviation Authority.

Sunday's Dreamliner flight was the first of five scheduled in May before the airline restarts a full commercial schedule on 1 June.

The first test flights were held in late April.

The BBC reports ANA operates more than a third of all Dreamliners currently in service, and has another 36 on order.