JAL to cancel 38 int'l flights in March after Boeing 787 grounding.

Feb. 20, 2013
Japan Airlines Co. said Tuesday it will cancel 38 flights on two of its international routes from March 1 to 30 due to the global grounding of all Boeing 787 Dreamliner jets.

TOKYO, Feb. 12 Kyodo

Japan Airlines Co. said Tuesday it will cancel 38 flights on two of its international routes from March 1 to 30 due to the global grounding of all Boeing 787 Dreamliner jets.

An estimated 3,020 passengers are expected to be affected by the cancellations on the routes linking Narita International Airport outside Tokyo with Boston and San Diego in the United States, JAL said.

JAL's decision lifts the cumulative total of international flights affected by the grounding to 94 since Jan. 16, when the ban was put into place after a Dreamliner belonging to JAL's rival ALL Nippon Airways Co. made an emergency landing at Takamatsu airport in western Japan due to smoke in the cockpit.

The cumulative total of inconvenienced passengers is set to rise to about 9,590, the airline said.

JAL said it has yet to decide whether it will cancel flights beyond March 31, when its summer schedule is set to begin.

Last week, ANA, which operates a larger fleet of Boeing 787s than JAL, said it had cancelled 681 flights -- 461 on domestic routes and 220 on international routes, during the March 1-30 period, affecting about 25,500 travelers.

It is not clear when airlines can resume operation of the Dreamliners.

The Jan. 16 incident followed one on Jan. 7, when a small electrical fire broke out on one of JAL's Boeing 787s at Boston's Logan International Airport, filling the cabin with smoke shortly after the plane's passengers had disembarked.

Last week, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said that it has identified a cell in the lithium-ion battery of the JAL plane as the source of the battery fire, although the cause of its malfunction is still unknown.

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