Qatar Airways is having to cut the frequency of its new flights to Chicago due to the continued grounding of the Dreamliner.
The carrier said that it would launch its Doha-Chicago route with just three weekly flights from April 10 instead of the planned daily schedule, although Qatar plans for the service to become daily from June 15.
Qatar also annonced that its new Doha-Chengdu service, scheduled to launch from March 19, would have to be “postponed to a later date”. The airline had planned to run three flights per week to the Chinese city.
All 50 Boeing B787s currently in service have been grounded since January 17 as the manufacturer tries to solve a defect with the aircraft’s onboard batteries.
Qatar said that it was contacting affected passengers who would be rebooked on alternative flights and routes.
Akbar Al Baker, the airline's CEO, added: “We sincerely apologise to our customers for the inconvenience of the capacity adjustments caused by the grounding of the 787s, which is out of our hands.
"We are making every effort to ensure our valued customers are aware of these service updates and are accommodated accordingly."
Boeing has yet to give any indication of when Dreamliners will be able to return to service. For the latest updates from the manufacturer, click here