Norwegian returns Dreamliner to Boeing after breakdowns

Budget airline Norwegian Air Shuttle is returning one of its brand new Dreamliners to Boeing , demanding repairs after the jet has suffered repeated breakdowns, it said on Saturday.

Norwegian Air Shuttle will instead lease an Airbus A340 from HiFly to keep its long-haul business going and will not take back the Boeing 787 Dreamliner until it is more reliable, a spokesman said.

"The aircraft's reliability is simply not acceptable, our passengers cannot live with this kind of performance," spokesman Lasse Sandaker-Nielsen told Reuters.

(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Hugh Lawson)