Source : BUSINESS NEWS
Just a month after Boeing announced its 787 aircraft had carried a billion passengers on five million flights over the past 14 years, Qatar Airways ordered 130 of the jets to become the world’s largest operator.
Qatar Airways has 54 787s in service and the order for 130 with 50 options will take its commitment, if the options are exercised, to 214.
The Qatar Airways order may well include an allocation for Virgin Australia, in which it has a 25 per cent stake.
Virgin Australia launches its long-range operations with a wet-lease of Qatar’s 777-300ERs next month, but that is only an interim option while it evaluates an order in its own right.
Virgin Australia wants to do trans-Pacific flights again as well as launch Europe flights, and the Boeing 787-9 would fit those missions perfectly.
The Boeing 787 is the backbone of the Qantas Group’s international operations, with Jetstar and Qantas having 25 in service and another 12 on order, with 12 more options.
If all options are exercised, that would take the fleet to 49.
The Qantas commitment includes eight of the largest variant, the 787-10, which typically carries an additional 40 passengers, to 330, in a two-class configuration.
The Boeing 787 program, one of the most ambitious and complex undertakings in commercial aircraft history, represents a convergence of cutting-edge materials science, aerodynamics, systems integration and global manufacturing.
When Boeing launched the 787 program in 2004, the aviation industry was at a crossroads.
The hub-and-spoke model, where passengers were funnelled through massive central airports, was being challenged by growing demand for direct, point-to-point services.
Rising fuel costs were squeezing airline margins. Environmental concerns were coming to the fore.
Boeing’s response was the 787, a sleek, fuel-efficient, long-range aircraft designed not just to compete with the Airbus A380, but to leapfrog it entirely.
The pitch was simple: a mid-size, wide-body jet that could fly long distances at lower cost, opening new routes and delivering a better passenger experience.
But delivering on that promise required a complete rethink of aircraft design and production.
From the outset, the 787 was conceived as a revolution, not an evolution.
It was the first commercial jetliner to use composite materials for most of its structure, including the fuselage and wings.
More than 50 per cent of the aircraft by weight is made from carbon fibre-reinforced polymers, making it lighter, stronger and more corrosion resistant than traditional aluminum-bodied aircraft.
The benefits were immediate: the 787 used up to 34 per cent less fuel per passenger than the A380.
That translated into longer range, lower emissions and better economics per seat.
The Dreamliner’s engines – GE’s GEnx and Rolls-Royce’s Trent 1000 – pushed the boundaries of propulsion technology, with quieter, cleaner and more efficient performance than anything that had come before.
Equally radical was the 787’s electrical architecture.
Eschewing traditional pneumatic systems, the aircraft relied heavily on electric systems for everything from cabin pressurisation to de-icing – enabling further weight reduction and easier maintenance.
However, the road to first flight was anything but smooth.
Boeing’s plan to outsource major components of the aircraft to suppliers around the world – Japan, Italy, South Korea, the UK – to a greater extent than ever before, was bold but fraught with risk.
Delays, quality issues and integration challenges pushed the first delivery back by more than three years.
The program racked up billions in cost overruns, prompting sharp criticism from industry analysts and investors.
Some began to wonder if Boeing had taken on too much, too fast.
But when the 787 entered service with All Nippon Airways in October 2011, it quickly began to deliver on its promise.
What set the 787 apart was not just how it was built, but how it felt.
Thanks to its composite structure, the 787 could be pressurised to the equivalent of 6,000 feet instead of the standard 8,000 ft.
That meant higher humidity and more oxygen, which translated into less dehydration and fatigue for passengers.
Large, electronically dimmable windows gave a greater sense of space and light. LED lighting systems subtly mimicked sunrise and sunset to help ease jet lag.
For economy-class travellers, the differences were subtle but real but for those on 15-hour flights, they were transformative.
With its combination of range and efficiency, the 787 enabled airlines to launch routes once thought impractical or impossible.
Perth to London, Boston to Tokyo, Nairobi to New York routes became not only viable, but profitable.
Qantas followed the London non-stop route with Paris and Rome.
In total, more than 350 non-stop city pairs have been opened with the 787. Airlines like Norwegian used it to pioneer low-cost long-haul services.
Others used it to bypass congested hubs, linking secondary cities with global capitals.
It allowed airlines to rethink their networks and, suddenly, a range of cities became viable because for the first time a twin-engine aircraft could outperform a four-engine one in range and economics.
As of 2025, the global 787 fleet numbers more than 1,100 aircraft, operating with more than 85 airlines across six continents.
With variants seating from 248 to 336 passengers and ranges up to 7,530 nautical miles, the 787 fits seamlessly into everything from transcontinental hops to marathon international flights.
On any given day, 787s crisscross the globe, linking more than 900 city pairs, carrying more than 300,000 passengers.
According to Boeing’s internal estimates, the 787 fleet has saved more than 100 billion pounds of CO› emissions compared with the aircraft it replaced.
It’s a success story not just in aviation economics, but in sustainability.
The 787’s story is far from over.
Boeing continues to refine the platform with software updates, system improvements and cabin enhancements.
The 787-10, the largest member of the family, is optimised for high-density routes like Singapore-Sydney or New York-Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, the aircraft plays a central role in Boeing’s broader sustainability roadmap.
All 787s are certified to operate with blends of sustainable aviation fuel and the airframe is serving as a testbed for new ‘ecoDemonstrator’ technologies.
With the Qatar Airways order for 130 aircraft, Boeing now has a backlog of 960 787s and is producing the aircraft at the rate of a five a month. Over the next four years hopes to lift that to 14 a month.
Prior to COVID, the company was building 787s at 14 a month at two sites but scaled that back in 2020 to one site.
Supply chain and production issues since COVID have hampered plans to ramp up production but those issues are now largely behind the company.
Into the future the 787 could be stretched again and there is the possibility of engine upgrades to further reduce fuel used per passenger.
