Q – My entire family of seven is scheduled to fly from Houston to Denver in October and we are currently bo0ked on the new Boeing 787. First we had the battery issues and now it seems that there are more issues with the airplane. We do not fly often and we are a little nervous. We know you will give us an honest answer so thanking you in advance.
A – We have seen some issues with United Airlines newly acquired 787 fleet since they returned to service. Bloomberg News reports that the UA’s 787 flights are cancelled four times more often than the rest of its current fleet. On that basis, and because you have anxiety about your flight, we recommend that you change your flight times and use a different aircraft. Your travel agent should be able to help you with this and we would expect that United will be sympathetic to your request.
We don’t really know all of the reasons for United’s spate of 787 cancellations. We do know that other 787 equipped airlines, such as Japan Airlines and ANA cancelled 787 flights due to computer failure and some difficulties with their anti-icing system.
Would we put our family on a 787? Absolutely. In a heartbeat. This wonderful aircraft has onboard diagnostics that are far more sophisticated than that found aboard any other type of commercial aircraft. The system even helps ground crews prepare for maintenance while the plane is still airborne. Any new aircraft model tends to have some growing pains. True, the 787’s battery problems were not at all typical. But we think this aircraft is safe to fly and, from every report, it offers the very best in-cabin experience of any current private jet charter .
