Dreamliner flight Monday not part of battery certification testing

A 787 has taken off from Paine Field on the way to Moses Lake, but Boeing said the flight is not part of the company’s effort to certify the Dreamliner’s redesigned battery.

“The battery certification demonstration flight will take place in the coming days,” Marc Birtel, a Boeing spokesman, wrote in an emailed statement Monday.

“This is a routine test flight designed to address ongoing system upgrades to the airplane,” Birtel said in a statement.

The 787 was being flown on a two-hour flight south down the coast and east over to Moses Lake. It will return to Everett after a brief stop at Moses Lake. Information on the 787’s flight can be viewed on FlightAware.

Commercial flights of the 787 were halted on Jan. 16 after two Dreamliner jets experienced problems with the jet’s lithium-ion batteries. Boeing presented a redesigned battery to the Federal Aviation Administration in late February. The agency gave Boeing the go-ahead for test flights on March 12.

Boeing already conducted one flight with the redesigned battery on March 25 and has done some ground testing with a 787 at Boeing Field.

Boeing CEO Jim McNerney said last week that he has a “high degree of confidence” in the battery solution.

At the time of the grounding, Boeing had delivered 49 787s to commercial customers.