Norwegian says taking Dreamliner out of long-haul service, demanding repairs

Budget airline Norwegian Air Shuttle is taking one of its brand new Dreamliners out of long-haul service and demanding that Boeing repair the plane after it suffered repeated breakdowns, the carrier said on Saturday.

Norwegian Air Shuttle will instead lease an Airbus A340 from HiFly to keep its long-haul business going, 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.

(This story was corrected to say Norwegian taking Dreamliner out of long-haul service, not returning Dreamliner to Boeing)

(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Hugh Lawson)