DOHA/LONDON – Qatar Airways will not take delivery of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner until an engine defect is modified, its chief executive said Tuesday. Qatar has placed orders for 60 Dreamliners - 30 firm and an option for 30 more - and selected General Electric Co.'s new-generation GEnx engine for the aircraft. “The 787 has an engine with new technology. However, there has been a material defect in the engine which now needs replacement and inspection," Al-Baker said after a speech in the Qatari capital Doha. GE, the world's largest maker of jet engines, said last month it was investigating a second failure of the GEnx jet engine after a Boeing freighter aircraft aborted a takeoff in China. It was the second incident involving a GEnx engine since July, when an engine on a jet being tested before delivery in South Carolina failed, causing a fire in grass near the runway. The US National Transportation Safety Board said on August 8 that the July failure was a contained incident of the sort that did not normally pose an immediate safety risk. “We have informed Boeing that we will not take delivery until the 787s have the new modified shaft," Baker, who has often been outspoken about planemakers Airbus and Boeing and other industry issues, said. Qatar Airways, established in 1993, has a fleet of 111 aircraft, with 214 planes on order, including options. Baker also said Qatar was not preparing to join the oneworld alliance after sources close to the airline group said it would next week become the first Gulf carrier to join. Alliances were formed in the 1990s to help airlines benefit from each other's marketing and routes in the face of tightly-controlled bilateral traffic rights. – Reuters
