Boeing’s new generation B787 Dreamliner is to make its maiden commercial flight today in Asia.
The special charter flight by the twin-engined aircraft from Tokyo to Hong Kong comes after years of delays. Normal services by launch airline All Nippon Airways are due to start in November. The Dreamliner had originally been scheduled for delivery in 2008, but Boeing has suffered a string of setbacks.
Boeing 787 programme head Scott Francher said that the company is comfortable with the production targets for the Dreamliner. The company hopes to build 10 a month by 2013.
“We are comfortable we have an executable plan,” Francher said ahead of the first flight. With its mostly carbon-composite body, Boeing’s technological flagship offers a 20% improvement in fuel efficiency.
Of Boeing’s backlog of 821 orders for the Dreamliner, nearly a tenth of them are for Japan. Thomson Airways and British Airways both have orders for the Dreamliner.
The 100 seats available to paying passengers on the flight sold out as soon as they went on sale, with 25,505 people going online for the scarce tickets. A pair of tickets that ANA offered on the Yahoo auction site for charity sold for 890,000 yen ($11,693.601).