Boeing 787, the Dreamliner

This is the magic month for Boeing with their launch of its new flagship beauty, the Dreamliner, officially known as the Boeing 787. This isn’t just another plane from the mammoth company. This jet is so unlike its predecessors in many ways, the main one being that it’s constructed from lightweight materials making it a greener as it’s using less fuel. That’s all good for eco-friendly commercial airliner companies, but what’s in it for the traveller? Maybe I can answer this more fairly once I’ve travelled on it, but from the pictures that i’ve seen, I would say it has the correct name, “Dreamliner“.

I’ve travelled on a few Airbus models and many of the 747 derivatives and the popular ‘triple seven’ (777). I’d like to be fair, but I’d have to say that I haven’t been too impressed with the Airbus models. The triple sevens from the same airline have always been substancially better equipped. Getting back to the Dreamliner, I’ve heard that the Dreamliner will (re)introduce a different kind of flight path model. The typical ones are ‘hub-and-spoke’, where an airliner will fly from its home airport to another and then return back home. The Dreamliner (so I have heard) will visit several airports before returning back to the home airport. I guess the idea is that it wouldn’t require re-fuelling at every stop since its a ‘cheap to run’ plane. So what’s the future of air travel? If many airline companies take this approach, you could be flying from Tokyo to Singapore with British Airways! It makes perfect business sense!