The head of Japan’s All Nippon Airlines has voiced “great disappointment” at repeated delays by Boeing in delivering its hi-tech 787 Dreamliner, according to a report.

ANA, Japan’s second largest airline after troubled Japan Airlines, is to be the launch customer for the Dreamliner, which features a lightweight part-carbon composite structure for greater fuel efficiency.

But the project has suffered a number of setbacks, including a fire on a test flight last month.

ANA was supposed to get the first of the 55 Dreamliners it has ordered more than two years ago but as a result of the delays has had to revise its fleet retirement plans, the Financial Times reported.

“We are pushing them to present the detailed cause of the irregularities,” said ANA’s chief executive officer Shinichiro Ito, referring to this month’s fire. “We are pushing Boeing to present the schedule for the delivery as soon as possible.”

Asked whether ANA regretted ever ordering the jet, Mr Ito responded: “Never! It’s a dream!

“Of course, we have a great disappointment about the delay but our top priority is to have an excellent fleet.”

Boeing was forced to halt test flights of the 787 after the fire involving an insulation blanket prompted an emergency landing.

Mr Ito also said he was optimistic about final results for the year to March 2011 after two years of losses.

“Six billion yen ($71.39 million) is our minimum target,” he said. Meanwhile, Japan Airlines yesterday said it had won approval from the Tokyo district court for a rehabilitation plan that will see thousands of job cuts, route closures and a debt waiver.

“The court today formally approved the restructuring plan,” said Hideo Seto, president of the Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp., which is charged with leading the restructuring process.

“With the approval of the plan, we have built the foundation to create a new Japan Airlines,” he told a press conference.

In January the flagship carrier went under owing $26 billion in one of Japan’s biggest-ever corporate failures, but has continued flying while it goes through a painful state-led restructuring process.

It de-listed from Tokyo’s stock exchange in February and submitted in August to the Tokyo court its rehabilitation plan, including a debt waiver worth 521.5 billion yen ($6.2 billion) and the loss of more than 16,000 positions.

The court’s decision came after major banks and creditors of the ailing carrier approved the plan.

“I am grateful that we were allowed to continue to operate and were given this opportunity to rebuild ourselves,” JAL president Masaru Onishi said, apologising to shareholders and the public.

“We promise we will be born again,” he said.

The court’s approval clears the way for ETIC to inject 350 billion yen into the JAL group.

But the airline faces a serious task ahead in improving its overall financial standing, rebuilding business relationships with banks, training new managers, and dealing with worker unions.

In August the carrier said it would cut loss-making international and domestic routes by the end of fiscal year 2012 while looking into the possibility of launching a low-cost carrier.

JAL said it would achieve personnel cuts by encouraging early retirement and selling subsidiaries, reducing staffing numbers to 32,600 at the end of fiscal 2010 from 48,714 at the end of fiscal 2009.

“There is a surplus of personnel. We have decided to reduce it. The approval of the court came based on that plan,” said JAL chairman Kazuo Inamori, suggesting forced layoffs are also expected.

The government earlier this year asked charismatic entrepreneur Inamori, founder of high-tech company Kyocera and an ordained Buddhist monk, to turn around the former state-run company.

“We must be lean and muscular,” he added of the restructuring. “It will cause great pain, but we have to ask employees for their understanding.”

However, the carrier’s restructuring efforts could be hampered by plans to terminate the employment contracts of around 200 pilots and cabin attendants, which have drawn criticism from labour unions who may take strike action.

Small groups of JAL workers protested outside the carrier’s headquarters yesterday against the planned job cut.

The airline had long been criticised as lacking cost-consciousness, but it will start logging profitability by divisions under the new management plan, Mr Seto said.