TOKYO, April 29 (UPI) -- Japan's All Nippon Airways said it has completed the first flight test of its Boeing 787 Dreamliner after necessary modifications of its battery system.
The flight Sunday came after the Japanese Transport Ministry announced both ANA and Japan Airlines can resume flying their fleets of Dreamliners, which had been grounded worldwide for about three months due to battery-related incidents.
The ministry's decision came after U.S. regulators approved Boeing's modified battery system.
"Since the emergency landing made by ANA flight 692 on January 16th, Boeing 787 had been grounded," ANA said on its web site. "Today we were able to accomplish the first test flight after the necessary modifications."
During the Sunday flight, ANA's Dreamliner flew from Haneda airport in Tokyo and returned to the airport about 2 hours later after flying over Hachijo Island south of Tokyo and Wakayama Prefecture in western Japan, Kyodo News reported.
The report quoted the airline as saying no abnormalities were found during the test flight.
ANA, which has 17 Dreamliners, plans to resume commercial operations from June. Japan Airlines plans to resume commercial operations in June after its flight test in May.
Kyodo said Ethiopian Airlines Saturday became the first airline in the world to resume commercial operations of the Dreamliner.
Three ANA executives and executives from Boeing Co. were onboard for the test flight Sunday, The New York Times reported.
Boeing executives welcomed the ANA's flight test, the Times said.
"We are very confident in the solution that we've developed, the design changes that we've made, and the testing that we've used to validate the design," Ray Conner, Boeing executive vice president and chief executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said.
