Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner

The 787-9 is the stretched second Dreamliner. Boeing added 6.1 meters of fuselage, raised the weights and carried more fuel than the 787-8. The extra length was the main change, and it paid off immediately, because airlines got more seats for little extra fuel. Air New Zealand was the launch customer, and the variant first flew on September 17, 2013. Both range and payload improved at the same time.

Service began from Auckland in August 2014. Unlike the troubled -8, the -9 arrived on schedule and gained from steady production improvements. Boeing had learned hard lessons from the first Dreamliner. It offers around 290 seats and nearly 14,000 kilometers of range, and well over 600 have been delivered so far. Production continues alongside the larger -10, and its per-seat economics comfortably beat the smaller -8.

It is the long-haul workhorse of United, ANA, Qatar Airways, Etihad, Air Canada, British Airways and Qantas. Qantas used it to launch the first regular nonstop flights between Australia and Europe, Perth to London, in March 2018. Air Tahiti Nui flies it on some of the longest scheduled routes anywhere. Few jets are as flexible. For network planners it has become the default mid-size long-haul jet of its era.

The -9 shares the Dreamliner's carbon-fiber fuselage and raked composite wing, with General Electric GEnx-1B or Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines near 71,000 pounds of thrust. It adds hybrid laminar flow control on the fin and stabilizer, smoothing airflow to cut drag, one of the first uses of the idea on an airliner.

Bleedless electric systems allow a lower cabin altitude, more humidity and dimmable windows. Two-class seating runs near 290. The cockpit is identical across all three Dreamliners, so crews fly them on one type rating. Airlines pair it freely with the -8 and -10.