Quantas remain committed to introduction of Dreamliner

Flying high: Quantas Dreamliner 787

ABC News in Australis reports that Qantas still remain committed to introducing the Boeing 787 Dreamliner to its fleet. This is despite some safety issues with the fuel-efficient jets.

Previous incidents involving the new aircrafts lithium-ion batteries have resulted in all the Boeing's 787s bring out of action. investigators in Japan and the United States are still trying to find the cause of the over heating batteries.

Qantas chief executive, Irish man, Alan Joyce says despite the problems, the airline's order for the planes remains.

"We believe that Boeing are a great airline manufacturing company, they're a great engineering company and they will fix this problem eventually," he said.

"They're still producing the aircraft, so the production line hasn't stopped. They have stopped delivering aircraft to customers.

"Our aircraft are due to arrive, the first one in August. We haven't been advised of any delay at this stage."

Japan's transport safety agency says it is still unclear whether battery chemistry or an electrical issue caused the main battery on an All Nippon Airways (ANA) 787 to overheat last month.

The ANA flight was forced to make an emergency landing after the battery problems triggered an onboard smoke alarm.

The head of Japan's Transport Safety Board, Norihiro Goto, says investigators may widen their probe of the battery problems to other equipment on the technologically advanced aircraft.

Mr Goto said CT scans showed six of the main battery's eight cells on the Dreamliner were badly damaged, charred and deformed.

In a separate incident, a battery on a Japan Airlines 787 caught fire at a US airport.

US officials said on Friday that they were making progress in their investigations but were yet to set a timetable for completion.

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