On Monday, July 25th, a XiamenAir Boeing 787-8 touched down gracefully on Vancouver International Airport’s (YVR) runway 26R, marking the carriers inaugural service to Canada’s West Coast Asia-Pacific gateway. The landing at YVR not only marked Xiamen’s 32nd birthday, but also its entry into the North American market.
Earlier this year at the Paris Air Show, Boeing test pilots put a 787-9 through its paces in a spectacular aerial demonstration. The new Dreamliner was decked out in the blue and gold livery of Vietnam Airlines, but the people attending the airshow weren’t the only ones to see the amazing maneuverability of the latest version of the 787. Prior to the show, when the pilots practiced their routine at the Moses Lake WA’s airport, Boeing had a high-definition video of the session shot and produced.
At Mock Air, APEX’s unofficial carrier, we’re all about the #PaxEx. At least we would be, if we were an actual airline with real aircraft. But one can never be too prepared, so we recently spent a morning at Boeing’s “Dreamliner Gallery,” to think about fitting out the interiors of our fictional fleet of 787s. The 54,000 square foot facility has been open for eight years, and was a “paradigm shift in our interaction with our customers,” says Dan Olson, Dreamliner Gallery Manager.
Air Canada’s first Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner (C-GHPQ) had its initial test flight on April 22 at Paine Field (PAE), in Everett, Wash. The General Electric GEnx-1B-powered plane lifted off from Runway 16R at 4:03 p.m., in the shadow of Boeing’s massive widebody assembly plant. This initial test flight was unexpectedly short, and the plane returned to land at 4:22 p.m. The flight test crew then did a high-speed ground run northbound along Runway 34L before taxiing to the flightline ramp.
YVR-Vancouver International Airport’s first scheduled Boeing 787 service began Monday morning with the arrival of Japan Airlines Flight #18 from Narita Airport (NRT) in Tokyo. The Dreamliner landed a few minutes ahead of its scheduled 10 a.m. (PT) arrival time, and was greeted at the gate by officials from Japan Airlines, the Government of B.C., the Government of Japan, the Vancouver Airport Authority, and Boeing.
It's looking pretty busy at Air Canada (AC) and not just because they've launched their new "leisure airline," rouge. This summer, AC took delivery of the first two 777-300ERs from their latest five-plane order. When this order is completed, AC will have 17 -300ERs and 6 -200LRs in their international fleet. While AC's new 777s look standard on the outside, they are very different inside.
