Determined to get Dreamliner fleet back in air: Boeing

Boeing's Dreamliner fleet continues to be grounded awaiting clarity from the US National Transport Safety Board (NTSB) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Remember on January 16, Japan's All Nippon, the largest customer of the Dreamliner was forced to make an emergency landing forcing global regulators to ground the entire fleet of 50 including six of Air India's aircraft.

Also read: JAL to discuss 787 grounding compensation with Boeing

In its 7th update since investigations began, the NTSB has said it was making progress and things were moving swiftly. In a CNBC-TV18 exclusive, Shereen Bhan caught up Boeing veteran and the man who heads sales for Boeing's faster growing region, Dinesh Keskar to get the details on how one should read the NTSB update.

Below is the edited transcript of Keskar’s interview to CNBC-TV18

Q: What is your view on the current investigations?

A:We are vigorously supporting the investigations by NTSB, the Japanese regulatory agencies and working with FAA. In a Boeing company, we have literally hundreds of technical experts basically focused on figuring out what happened. They are working in conjunction with the regulatory authorities both in United States and Japan with a single goal of getting these airplanes back in the air. The good thing is that everybody really believes that Boeing is going to find a solution to this problem sooner rather than later.

Q: So there is no other choice but to support your pacifying solution?

A: We are confident about the 787. We stand by its overall integrity. We know this is a right airplane and it will come back in the air, but the timing is something that we cannot speculate and talk about right now.

Q: What gives you that confidence? The debate over whether lithium-ion should actually be used or not has been raging now for a while now. There were tests done by the FAA in 2010, which did find problems with what is called 'thermal runaway' as far as lithium-ion batteries were concerned. Cessna which actually was using lithium-ion decided to not use it starting 2011 because of the problem that they actually found. So, what gives you the confidence that you don’t want to look at an alternative?

A: We obviously have gone through a certification process on this. Similarly, these batteries have been flown on the airplanes over a year. I agree some batteries were replaced, but that’s not uncommon at all in this business.

Q: However, in one airline, which is your largest customer for the Dreamliner- the Nippon replaced 10 batteries in a period between May and December of last year. Apparently five of them were replaced for exactly the same problem that finally led to the emergency landing of the Nippon Airways flight on the January 16.

A: Nippon has 17 airplanes in operation. They were the launch customer for the 787 programme in the world and they are fully aware that the batteries were replaced not because of the safety issue.

Q: And Boeing was informed about these replacements?

A: Yes.

Q: However, you chose not to inform the regulators about the replacements?

A: I was not privy to those details so I can’t say. But clearly this is a very standard thing. There is going to be an investigation of that and it is now part of the investigation and we are cooperating fully with everything that is going on.

Q: So the customers at this point in time are not saying that maybe they want to reconsider their orders. They are not saying that they would like compensation, especially a company like Nippon who was losing or has already lost close to USD 15 million?

A: In Asia and I am sure in other places around the world too, a lot of people have commented publicly on this and nobody is really saying anything like this.

Q: They have not used the word compensation either?

A: Not yet. Look, everybody wants to get the airplane back in the air first. Once that happens, then there will be conversations.

Q: A lot has changed in the aviation sector. The foreign direct investment (FDI) regulations have been changed. So, that is a big boost. Infact, we are very close to seeing the first FDI from a foreign airline into an Indian carrier- Etihad and Jet. They are perhaps going to be inking that deal very shortly. So, the Indian aviation market has seen a dramatic change in the last couple of months?

A: Absolutely. I have always been bullish on the industry. I have been working for Boeing India for 25 years now. Till about a decade ago, I  would have never done any interviews to say how great the Indian market is like I went around the world to talk about the 787. Everybody wants to know what's happening in India and that goes all the way from as East as New Zealand into Singapore and Thailand. They all want to know the FDI situation in India.