First Dreamliner in Sydney - JAL or Jetstar? - Sydney Morning Herald - Sydney Morning Herald

Japan Airlines will begin flying its Boeing 787 Dreamliners to Sydney in December in a move which has it vying with Jetstar to launch flights of the new planes to Australia's gateway.

As part of a rejig of its global network, Japan Airlines has announced that it will fly Dreamliners between Sydney and Tokyo's Narita Airport from December 2. They will replace its Boeing 777-200 aircraft on the daily run to Sydney – Japan Airlines' only route to Australia.

Japan Airlines plans to begin returning its fleet of Dreamliners to service from the start of June after "confirming the safety and reliability of the aircraft".

The first routes for the 787s include Tokyo to Boston and San Diego in the US.

Last month US regulators cleared the way for Dreamliners to be returned to service after approving a fix for the problem batteries on the state-of-the-art planes.

Before the grounding of the 787s in January, Jetstar had been due to take delivery of the first of its 14 Dreamliners in August.

The airline has since said there could be a couple of months' delay.

Jetstar will not release a definitive route schedule for its Dreamliners until shortly before it takes delivery of the first new planes.

They will gradually replace its A330s which fly from cities including Melbourne, Sydney and the Gold Coast to Hawaii, Japan and Singapore.

Jetstar has said it expects to be the first low-cost carrier in the world to fly the Dreamliners.

But Qatar Airways is likely to be the first airline to operate Dreamliners to Australia with flights between its base in Doha and Perth. It has not given a specific date for the flights.

In January, the worldwide fleet of 787s was grounded after a battery fire in a Japan Airlines 787 in Boston. It was the first time the US Federal Aviation Administration had grounded an aircraft type since 1979 when it kept the Douglas DC-10 on the tarmac.

Since emerging from bankruptcy protection last year, Japan Airlines has embarked on an expansion of its international network. However, the 787 grounding has hampered those plans.

The airline has orders for 45 Dreamliners.

Ethiopian Airlines this week became the first carrier to resume flying the 787.