Boeing Co. announces Air India is dissatisfied with the reliability of its 787 Dreamliner

Boeing Co. announced that Air India Ltd is not satisfied with the performance of its 787 Dreamliner after some of the planes suffered defects over the last few months.

The Senior Vice President of Boeing – Dinesh Keskar – said in an interview cited by Bloomberg: “Yes, they are not happy with the reliability portion, neither are we. Over the last few months, we understood which are the components that were causing issues, which software needs to be upgraded.”

Since its début in 2011, Boeings Dreamliner series has suffered breakdowns and failures, which even included a three-month grounding of the global fleet in 2013 after battery meltdowns on two planes. On the other hand, Air India, which has not achieved an annual profit for 7 years, considers that the planes fuel efficiency is key to decreasing its costs.

Earlier in February, Air India redirected one of its 787s to Kuala Lumpur as a precaution after the plane experienced a software error on a flight to New Delhi. Mr. Keskar revealed that the software and some components of 787s used by Air India are being upgraded whenever the planes can be taken out of service.

The Times of India reported today that Air India is considering to seek compensation from Boeing after it found out that the 787s units are not as fuel efficient as claimed by the plane manufacturer at the beginning.

G. P. Rao, who is one of the spokesmen of Air India did not respond to two calls to his mobile phone.

Mr. Keskar said that the fuel efficiency of the Dreamliner series is improving after earlier models did not “quite make the mark” on this count. As reported by Bloomberg, Boeings Chief Executive Officer also explained that the company sees potential aircraft deals in India later this year. The company is said to be currently negotiating with discount carrier SpiceJet Ltd and Jet Airways Ltd, which is the nations largest publicly traded airline, over selling 737 Max jets.

Boeing Co.s shares rose by 0.11% in New York on Monday to settle at $127.16, marking a one-year change of +67.60%. According CNN Money, the 22 analysts offering 12-month price forecasts for Boeing Co. have a median target of $155.00, with a high estimate of $175.00 and a low estimate of $135.00. The median estimate represents a 21.89% increase from the last close.