Japan's All Nippon Airways may seek compensation if there are further production delays to Boeing's new 787, the company's president was quoted on Wednesday as saying.

ANA, Japan's second-largest carrier, will also take a step toward setting up a budget airline in Asia by establishing an office in Hong Kong from April, a company spokesman said.

Boeing announced in January a second delay for the 787, pushing first deliveries back to early 2009. The prospect of a further delay emerged last week when the Financial Times reported that Boeing said it would have to redesign parts of the aircraft.

ANA President Mineo Yamamoto told the Mainichi Shimbun daily that his company, which is due to be the first to take delivery of the new aircraft, might consider demanding compensation for any further delays.

"Naturally, that would come up, because we had calculated the contribution of fuel efficiency to our income," he was quoted as saying.

A company spokesman said that since there has not been formal notification of another delay, no decision has yet been made by the airline.

"We've already factored in that we will not be receiving the planes during the 2008 fiscal year as part of our business plan," the spokesman said, referring to the fiscal year starting from April and ending March 31, 2009.

"Should it be delayed further, there's a possibility that we might consider it (compensation)," he added.

ANA said last year that it may start a low-priced airline in a pre-emptive move to ward off potentially fierce competition from Chinese rivals.

The Nikkei business daily said on Wednesday that the new airline could be established as early as the 2008 fiscal year, possibly through a joint venture with an Asian carrier or by acquiring another airline.

The ANA spokesman said that the company would be opening an office in Hong Kong next month to research possibilities for such an airline, but that nothing more concrete had been decided.