United to restart Dreamliner flights May 20

United Airlines will restart Boeing 787 "Dreamliner" flights on May 20, putting the aircraft on hub-to-hub routes out of Houston Bush Intercontinental.

United spokeswoman Christen David confirmed the news to Today in the Sky, saying the Dreamliner flights became visible in United's reservation system with a May 4 schedule update.

Until that update, United's resumption of Dreamliner service had been set for May 31 in United's flight schedules, though the carrier indicated at the time "additional schedule changes" were possible.

As for the May 20 restart date, United's first 787 flight be will be an 11 a.m. CT departure from Houston to Chicago O'Hare.

It will be the airline's first flight on the jet since it was grounded by safety regulators in mid-January because of overheating concerns on its lithium-ion batteries. The Federal Aviation Administration approved Boeing's proposed fix for the problem April 25, paving the way for the new-age jet to resume passenger flights.

Ethiopian Airlines was the world's first carrier to resume passenger flights on the jet, flying the 787 on its Addis Ababa-Nairobi route on April 27. Qatar Airways also resumed its Dreamliner service last week, returning the jet to service on its Doha-London route.

And, in India, The Wall Street Journal reports that Indian regulators have cleared Air India to resume its Dreamliner flights. That's expected to come in early June, an unnamed official in India's civil-aviation ministry tells the Journal.

Back to United, the carrier currently is scheduled to use the Dreamliner for just one round-trip flight on its busy Chicago-Houston schedule May 20. United's Dreamliner will appear on an increasing number of Chicago-Houston flights through the rest of the month and into June.

Elsewhere, United's Dreamliners will begin operating some flights between Houston and Denver on May 21 and between Houston and Los Angeles on May 24. Dreamliner flights on those routes will ramp up in the coming weeks as well.

The Dreamliner will return to international service for United on June 10, when the airline uses the jet to launch nonstop service between Denver and Tokyo Narita.