Japan Airlines (JAL) has placed orders for 20 of the slightly larger Boeing B787-9 aircraft of the Dreamliner family as part of its mid-term management plans for 2012 through to 2016.
The 20 orders, which comprise of 10 new orders and 10 converted orders out of the 35 B787-8 aircraft it already has on order, will be deployed on the carrier’s medium and long haul international network from 2015 onwards.
These 20 orders and the 25 firm orders for B787-8s mean that JAL currently has a total of 45 Dreamliners on order.
The B787-9 Dreamliner can be configured with approximately 50 more seats than the B787-8 while being equally as fuel efficient. This means that the unit cost per seat is lower than the B787-8 making it “in line with JAL’s efforts to bring down air operation expense per available seat kilometre to achieve the goal of saving JPY50 billion (US$637 million) in cost effectiveness during the period of the mid-term management plans,” stated a release from the carrier.
The carrier is poised to receive its first Dreamliner within the next few months, although a finalised date has not yet been announced. As reported earlier, the first few Dreamliner aircraft will be deployed on the carrier’s new flights to Boston as well as on routes to New Delhi, Moscow, Beijing (see story here) and eventually Singapore (see story here).
For more information, visit www.jal.com
Alisha Haridasani
