Boeing expects 787 battery tests to be finished in "week or two"

(Reuters) - Boeing Co said Friday it is far enough along in testing its fixes for the 787 Dreamliner that it expects testing can be concluded "within the next week or two," allowing the planemaker to confidently predict that the jet will be flying again within weeks, not months.

"We should be able to finish those tests in the next week or two," Ron Hinderberger, vice president of 787-8 engineering for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, told a press conference Friday.

He said the company had already completed three tests, and three others were currently being run. After the tests are finished, "that would leave the approval" up to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), he said.

Regulators grounded all 50 of the carbon-composite Dreamliners worldwide in January after a battery caught fire on a Japan Airlines Co Ltd 787 jet at Boston's Logan airport and a battery melted on an All Nippon Airways Co Ltd flight in Japan.