United Airways Plans To Return Its Dreamliners To The Air On May 31 : News : TravelersToday

Forgetting that its rival Airbus has opened an assemble plant in Mobile Ala., essentially, its backyard, there seems to be good news for the American-based aircraft maker on the Dreamliner front as United announced plans to return their 787s back to the air beginning May 31.

It all has to do with United's confidence that Boeing's proposed lithium-ion battery fix will get the new-age jets cleared for passenger traffic by the Federal Aviation Administration sooner rather than later.

"We are in the process of formulating our domestic flying plans and will be making additional schedule changes as we gain visibility to the time line for certification and modification work," United spokeswoman Christen David confirmed Monday to CNN.

David added that "the airline will make more schedule changes involving the Dreamliner as the airline gets a better idea of when the plane will be cleared to fly."

In fact, domestic flights isn't all that United wants out of its Dreamliner fleet, it is expected that the only american company to own the Dreamliner will resume international 787 flying on June 10, when the carrier will launch its postponed Denver-Tokyo service.

Bloomberg News noted that the previous goal was to restart domestic 787 service on June 5, but that was bumped up due to Boeing's flight-testing progression.

United isn't the only airline to put Dreamliners back onto its flight schedules, Qatar Airways, expects to resume Dreamliner flying between Doha and London Heathrow on May 15.

However, all of the airlines have stated that the plans are not set in stone and can be changed instantly.

Another note is that, assuming Boeing does get approval by the FAA and the grounding order is lifted, it will still need to install the new batteries on each and every Dreamliner in commission