Air China to fly Dreamliner to New York

Air China will be switching to a B787-9 Dreamliner on its Beijing Capital Airport (PEK) to New York Newark Airport (EWR) route this December, replacing the B777-300ER that currently flies the route.

Starting December 2 this year, flights CA819 and CA820 will feature the three-class Dreamliner, which will see the introduction of 34 premium economy seats to the route, but at the cost of the B777’s eight first class seats.

The total number of business class seats will also drop from 42 on the B777 to 30 on the Dreamliner, along with economy, which will go from 261 to 229 seats. Both aircraft’s business class offers a fully flat seat, though the seat products themselves are different.

Details of the three-times weekly service are as follows (all times local):

Meanwhile, another of Air China’s Beijing-New York services, this time to JFK airport, is set to change schedule from October 29 onwards. Also operated by a B777-300ER, the airline’s five-times-weekly CA989 flights will switch from a 0900 morning departure from Beijing to a 2325 late evening one. This will see the flight arrive in New York at 2255 that same evening as opposed to at 1020 the same morning.

Flight CA990 from JFK, meanwhile, will depart early morning at 0230 and arrives in Beijing the following morning at 0520, changing from its current 1250 departure at 1415 arrival the next day.

Details of the daily service are as follows (all times local):

It’s worth noting that both the New York JFK and Newark routes are among the international flights on which Air China recently began offering meal pre-ordering.

Meanwhile travellers from the US flying to destinations in China going through Beijing can now also authorise the carrier to open their checked baggage on their behalf for quarantine and customs inspections. This eliminates the need for travellers to pick up their baggage at Beijing, and instead check it through to their final destination.

airchina.com