Boeing is promoting the jet as a super-efficient airplane with new passenger-pleasing features and several airlines around the world including Air India and Jet have placed orders and firm commitments for an aircraft.
Air India has placed an order for 27 Boeing Dreamliners and Jet Airways will buy ten of them. Air India chairman and managing director Vasudevan Thulsidas, who is in Seattle to take part in the rollout of the Dreamliner, told reporters the company will buy 68 passenger jets from Boeing, of which 27 will be the Dreamliners.
Commenting on the robust aviation sector in India, he said: "We are really bullish about growth and we think we have got the right combination of circumstances today in terms of a growing market, a growing fleet, the merger of Indian Airlines with the company and a realisation among the employees".
"This kind of right combination should make us one among the five best airlines in Asia," he said. Air India has drawn up plans to start flights to various American cities such as Boston, Dallas Fort Worth, Houston and Washington, New York, Chicago and San Fransisco.
The airline expects American operations would contribute the maximum revenue, instead of the Gulf region that currently makes up 35-40 per cent of its income.
Boeing claims its latest offering would use 20 per cent less fuel than any other plane of its size. It would carry 210-250 passengers on routes of up to 8,500 nautical miles. The mid-sized wide-body passenger airliner is scheduled to enter service in 2008 and is being rolled out from Boeing's Everett facility.
Boeing has so far received 642 orders from 46 customers. The first delivery of the Dreamliner will be to All Nippon Airways in May 2008. The company said between 2008 and 2009 a total of 112 planes are slated to be delivered with peak production rates seen in 2010.
The first flight test of the new plane is scheduled for sometime between August and September this year. "We have no intention of delay in service. We don't anticipate big surprises," says Mike Bair, vice president and general manager of the 787 Programme.
Boeing has selected General Electric and Rolls-Royce to develop engines for the new airplane.
It is expected that advances in engine technology will contribute as much as 8 per cent of the increased efficiency of the new airplane, representing a nearly two-generation jump in technology for the middle of the market, according to information available on the company's website.