Fly Maharaja-style on Air India's Dreamliner

New Delhi, Sep 8: With the arrival of Air India's long-awaited Boeing 787 Dreamliner at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport, passengers flying out of India on the national carrier are looking forward to a real Maharaja-type travel. The first of the long-haul planes arrived here on Saturday. Air India had placed orders for 27 of these aircraft six years ago. Two more Dreamliners will be delivered within the next few weeks. Says Air India's Chairman and Managing Director Rohit Nandan, the new aircraft will allow the airline to operate on new routes and enable it to save fuel cost. "The 787 aircraft will allow Air India to open new routes in a dynamic marketplace and provide the best in-flight experience for our passengers," Nandan said.The 787 plane has the range and capability to allow Air India to deploy it on many routes including the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Australia.Air India will be the fifth global airline after All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines to receive the fuel-efficient and eco-friendly aircraft.Air India had booked 27 Boeing 787s in 2006 in a mega deal. The carrier was to get the delivery in May 2008, but that got pushed forward to the end of the month for a variety of reasons including manufacturing delays.The aircraft were scheduled to be delivered from September 2008 to October 2011. But due to certain design and production issues, these were delayed and rescheduled to be delivered between June 2012 and March 2016.The airline plans to deploy the 787 Dreamliner aircraft on domestic routes to save on fuel, train the crew and add flexibility in its winter schedule by flying out to select domestic and overseas destinations."A key feature of the aircraft is fuel saving. It consumes 20 percent less fuel than other aircraft. The proposal to deploy the aircraft on domestic routes will help us save on high jet fuel cost," the official said.The Boeing 787 aircraft is made of composite materials. Its newly-developed engine and advanced flight technologies make it highly fuel-efficient.The plane can fly up to 16,000 km non-stop.The aircraft comes with a slew of advanced technologies which reduce noise and emission during all phases of flight, including take-off, cruise and landing. The Air India's 787 will also be equipped with best-in class seats for its 256 passengers from Contour Aerospace and Weber Aircraft.While Contour Aerospace will equip the 18 business class seats, Weber would provide the other 238 seats.The official said it would have state-of-the-art in-flight entertainment system from the aviation electronics major Thales.For the next few weeks, the Dreamliner would be operated on the domestic sectors, including Delhi-Mumbai, to enable the pilots and crew get accustomed to its landings and take-offs.According to Boeing, as many as 47 airlines across the world have ordered nearly 900 Dreamliners.The long-range, twin-engine aircraft has four variants, with the longest-range variant capable of flying over 15,000 kms non-stop.