This past week has been much history in the making. Qantas made the first non-stop flight from Perth to London, which puts the Kangaroo route now non-stop, on a Boeing 787-9! However, this is about another new aircraft coming on the market, again from the Boeing 787 family, and one we can expect to see in the Indian skies sooner than later: The Boeing 787-10.
Commended to be the most efficient widebody airplane flying today, over the weekend, Boeing delivered the first jet to launch customer Singapore Airlines, making it the first operator of all three models of the Dreamliner family.
About 3,000 people marked the milestone at Boeing’s facility in North Charleston, South Carolina where the latest 787 model is manufactured.
Like the other 787 Dreamliners, the 787-10 is designed with strong, lightweight composites, the most advanced systems, and comfortable cabin features. The 787-10, though, features a longer fuselage which allows it to carry about 40 more passengers or a total of 330 seats in a standard two-class configuration.
With the additional capacity, the 787-10 provides airlines with the lowest operating cost per seat of any widebody airplane in service today.
Singapore Airlines – through their subsidiary Scoot – already fly the 787-8 and 787-9 Dreamliners. With today’s delivery, the group will be the first to operate all three Dreamliner models. Singapore Airlines has 68 additional Boeing widebody jets on order, including 48 additional 787-10s, and 20 of the new 777-9s.
SIA’s 787-10s will be used for flights up to eight hours. Singapore Airlines plans to put its 787-10s into scheduled service in May, with flights from Singapore to Osaka, Japan, and Perth, Australia. Osaka and Perth will be the first scheduled destinations to be served by the new aircraft, from May 2018.
Before the introduction of these services, the aircraft will be operated on selected flights to Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur for crew training purposes.
The 787-10s will feature SIA’s new regional cabin products, configured with 337 seats in two classes, featuring 36 Business Class and 301 Economy Class seats. The new products will be unveiled at an arrival ceremony in Singapore on 28 March 2018, after the aircraft’s delivery flight from North Charleston via Osaka.
@Ajay… SQ doesn’t operate the 787-8 and 787-9. It’s the launch customer for 787-10. This would be it’s first Dreamliner.
@Mika, the SQ Group does operate the 787-8 and -9, as mentioned in the write-up. Scoot operates both of them!