Boeing’s first 787 Dreamliner for All Nippon Airways was rolled out of the paint hangar on Monday at Boeing's facility near Seattle, United States. The aircraft is scheduled to be delivered to All Nippon Airways next month. ANA will be the first airline that will be operating Boeing 787 Dreamliner commercially.
To celebrate the rolling out of the Boeing’s Dreamliner, the aircraft was painted beautifully in vibrant colours of white and blue. Scott Fancher, Boeing's Vice President and General Manager of the 787 Program, was buoyed with the development and was quoted by news portals as saying: “We are rolling out the first delivery airplane, the first 787. That's an amazing thing for those who have worked on the program five, six, seven years, here at Boeing and our partners around the world.”
787 Dreamliner is the first commercial aircraft to be made chiefly of carbon composites or super durable plastic. This makes it a much lighter plane as compared to others of similar size. It is also believed that the 787 uses 20 % less fuel than regular planes, making it an environmentally-friendly as well as cost effective option among airlines. It remains to be seen if the cost effectiveness of the 787 is passed onto the passengers in form cheap tickets on flights. Cheap flights tickets will indeed be wonderful news for budget travellers, if and when the airline decides to offer the same.
ANA will fly the celebratory first commercial flight as a charter service from the Narita airport to Hong Kong. International travellers with a penchant for trying something new will have to wait a bit longer than as the airline plans to deploy the Boeing 787 on domestic routes initially. This will be done to smooth the progress of staff training. 787 Dreamliner will operate scheduled travel services on the Haneda-Okayama and Haneda-Hiroshima routes.
Mitsuo Morimoto, Senior Executive Vice President of ANA was present at the aircraft roll out ceremony in Seattle. The company’s press release quoted Mitsuo Morimoto as stating, “We intend to use the Dreamliner to expand our business, particularly our international routes. We are aiming to increase our revenues from international operations significantly and the 787 will play an instrumental role in this.”
All Nippon Airways May Initiate New European Routes
With Boeing 787 Dreamliners in its kitty from next month, All Nippon Airways is eyeing to expand its horizons. The airline’s President and CEO, Shinichiro Ito hinted in an interview that the company may offer new European flights from February. However, he did not elaborate it further.
All Nippon Airways is indeed in an enviable position and has the opportunity to expand its operations in Europe and North America. With 787 in its fleet, the airline can fly to far flung routes that do not support large airliners.
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