After years of speculation, the return of Air India after a 16 year hiatus AND the first scheduled, commercial service of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner happened recently. I’d only ever seen the Boeing 787 Dreamliner once, that was in 2009 at the Boeing factory near Seattle when the first few had just rolled off the production line, so when one arrived at Sydney Airport, I had to have a look – unfortunately it was parked right in front of a Qantas 747-400, which made it hard to see and also dwarfed it somewhat!

When it was time for departure, I did get a great view of the taxi and take off of the aircraft. This first service trumped Jetstar, Japan Airlines and Qatar Airways, all purporting to be the first operator of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner in Australia. Jetstars first 787 will arrive in Australia in October this year, Japan Airlines will start services between Tokyo and Sydney on the 1st of December and Qatar Airways has still not advised when their services will start to between Doha and Perth.

Air India last operated into Australia in the 1990’s with Boeing 747’s via Singapore. The airline now operates a daily direct triangle service from Indira Gandhi Airport in Delhi to Sydney-Melbourne-Delhi and Delhi-Melbourne-Sydney-Delhi on alternating days.

The airline currently operates eight Boeing 787’s seating 256 passengers in a two class configuration, Business and Economy. The Business Class cabin seats 18 in lie flat seats while Economy seats 238 passengers with a decent seat pitch of 33″/83.8cms.

Although no way near as exciting as what it must have been like being on board the new Dreamliner on the first flight into Australia for Air India for years, it was thrilling to see the quiet jet, the first scheduled 787, take off into the clear Sydney skies 🙂

I am looking forward to when Jetstar’s first 787 arrives in Australia in a few weeks time, stay tuned as I’ll be getting up nice and close to that celebration!