ANA to cancel 177 flights over 6 days from Wed. amid Dreamliner problems

All Nippon Airways Co. said Monday it will cancel 177 flights over the six days from Wednesday as U.S. and Japanese authorities have ordered the grounding of Boeing 787 Dreamliner jets following a series of problems, including an incident in which a Dreamliner was forced to make an emergency landing at an airport in western Japan.

The cancellation of the flights -- 151 on 13 domestic routes and 26 on four international routes -- will affect a combined 21,800 travelers, ANA said.

The 13 domestic routes affected link Tokyo's Haneda airport with Shin-Chitose near Sapporo, Komatsu, Osaka, Okayama, Hiroshima, Yamaguchi-Ube, Takamatsu, Matsuyama, Fukuoka, Kumamoto, Miyazaki and Kagoshima, as well as services linking Osaka and Kagoshima.

The four international routes affected link Narita airport near Tokyo with San Jose and Seattle in the United States as well as Beijing, and Haneda with Kimpo near Seoul.

Although ANA has not employed Dreamliners on the Haneda-Komatsu route, the Haneda-Seoul route or the Narita-Beijing route, it will halt 12 flights on the three routes to manage its overall flight operations, it said.

One of the airline's Dreamliners made an emergency landing at Takamatsu Airport on Jan. 16 due to smoke in the cockpit.