Airbus exec says Boeing Dreamliner ‘not reliable’

and does not have mature systems,” Airbus sales chief John Leahy told reporters at a ceremony to mark the 1,000th delivery of the company’s A330 plane,to Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific.

“You can keep it flying but it’s going to cost you a lot

of maintenance,” Leahy said,in the first comments by Airbus management about the Dreamliner’s difficulties.

“What they’ve got is an architecture that is not mature

and that will eventually become mature. It’s going to take a

lot of time,a lot of money,a lot of cancelled flights. And

maybe redesign quite a few systems onboard.”

Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner has suffered from a string of

problems this year,including a fire on board an empty

Ethiopian Airlines plane at London’s Heathrow airport last

week.

British authorities yesterday said a distress beacon was

the likely cause of the fire and recommended they be disabled onboard all Dreamliners.

The Dreamliner,which makes extensive use of lighter,

carbon-based composite materials that reduce fuel consumption,came into service in September 2011.

But Boeing issued a global grounding order in January

after lithium-ion batteries overheated on two different jets.

The US aviation giant has not been able to identify the

root cause of the earlier problems,much to its embarrassment,but it said its modifications would prevent the problems recurring.

However,the planes have been dogged by problems since

they began flying once again in April,with a series of

flights worldwide cancelled or diverted due to mechanical

issues.

The latest incident came yesterday,when a Japan Airlines

787 that left Boston for Tokyo turned back due to a possible pump problem.