Qatar Airways (QR) will be adjusting schedules of its upcoming Chicago and Chengdu services due to the continued Dreamliner grounding.
The airline originally planned to launch a daily service to Chicago starting April 10, but it will adjust the route to three times a week initially, until June 15 when it is set to increase to daily. The Windy City will be QR's fourth gateway in the US.
Scheduled flights between Doha and Chengdu, which were due to start with three flights a week from March 19 (see story), have been postponed, but no new launch date has been confirmed. Although this route is not to be operated by the B787 (but an A330), suspension of the Dreamliner has impacted routes across QR's network, according to a statement released by the airline.
Other routes affected include Perth, where the QR Dreamliner was set to make its Australia debut last month (see story).
The Dreamliner's run of nightmares began on January 7 with a battery fire occuring on a B787 operated by JAL (see story), followed by more incidents on the same aircraft model, including a cracked cockpit window founded on a Dreamliner of ANA. The concerns that arose culmulated to the global suspension of all 50 B787s that were in commercial operation (see story). Last month, the US Federal Aviation Administration gave a green light to Dreamliner test flights as part of ongoing investigations into the causes of those incidents.
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Reggie Ho
