JAL starts compensation talks with Boeing over 787

Tokyo: Japan Airlines (JAL) has started talks with US aviation giant Boeing over losses stemming from the grounding of its troubled 787 Dreamliner, a company spokesman said on Wednesday.

The Japanese carrier was forced to cancel hundreds of flights since mid-January, when its entire 787 fleet was grounded due to battery-related problems.

"Japan Airlines has been discussing with Boeing for compensation regarding the 787 grounding," a spokesman said in a statement.

JAL, which held a shareholders’ meeting today, said it lost about 3.9 billion yen (USD 41 million) from the incident.


JAL and rival All Nippon Airways (ANA), the world's two biggest operators of 787s, have now put their Dreamliner fleets back into service following a four-month suspension as regulators investigated troubles with the next-generation aircraft. ANA has previously said it may begin compensation talks after the problems were fixed.

A global grounding order was issued in January after lithium-ion batteries overheated on two different planes, with one of them catching fire while the aircraft was parked.

Boeing admitted in April that, despite months of testing, it did not know the root cause of the problems on its flagship plane, but rolled out modifications it said would ensure they were safe.

Since then, Dreamliners have experienced a series of glitches, including an anti-icing problem that forced a Singapore-bound Dreamliner operated by JAL to abort the flight and return to Tokyo earlier this month.

AFP