TOKYO - Japan's All Nippon Airways (ANA) on Thursday said it would put its Dreamliner fleet back into service this weekend, several days ahead of schedule.
ANA, the single biggest operator of Boeing's flagship 787, plans to use the high-tech planes for two domestic flights from Chitose airport in Hokkaido to Haneda in Tokyo, earlier than its original plan for June 1.
"Modifications for all 787s have been implemented and ANA has undertaken its own additional testing," ANA president and CEO Osamu Shinobe said in a statement.
Dreamliners worldwide were grounded after two separate incidents on Japanese-owned planes involving overheating in the lithium-ion battery packs in January, one of which caused a fire on a parked plane in Boston.
After months of investigations, U.S. authorities last month issued formal approval of Boeing's battery fix, followed by a similar move from Japanese regulators.
Last week ANA said a modified Dreamliner had experienced a fault in an electrical panel earlier this month, but insisted it was too "minor" to affect the restart of the lightweight planes.
ANA operates around a third of the 50 787s that Boeing has delivered.
On Monday, United Airlines resumed a Boeing (IW 500/16) 787 Dreamliner flight from the airline's hub in Houston to Chicago.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2013
