AFP

Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA) said Thursday that net profit in the nine months to December soared 54.6 percent and said it would keep its annual profit forecast, despite its Dreamliner woes.

Net profit came to 52 billion yen ($574 million) on solid business demand, coupled with programmes to stoke leisure travel, it said, adding that the full extent of the financial impact of the worldwide grounding of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner was unclear.

However, the carrier said it expects take a $15.4 million hit on sales in January owing to 459 cancelled domestic and international flights this month linked to the troubled next-generation aircraft.

Earlier this month, pilots on an ANA domestic Dreamliner flight were forced into an emergency landing due to smoke apparently linked to the lithium-ion battery.

ANA and rival Japan Airlines — which are key Dreamliner customers with 111 aircraft ordered so far — said Wednesday they had replaced a number of batteries after experiencing problems before the worldwide grounding.

Boeing’s cutting-edge new planes suffered a series of glitches this month, including the emergency landing, prompting a global alert from the US Federal Aviation Administration that led to the grounding of all 50 operational 787s.

Source AFP