787-9 in Washington Dulles (IAD)

The new ’stretch’ version of Boeing’s 787 ‘Dreamliner’ (787-9) are now being put into service. I happened to see my first 787-9 at Dulles airport (IAD) last week, operated by Virgin Atlantic. Virgin replaced it’s aging A340 that it used to fly to to Washington Dulles from London Heathrow (LHR). The schedule of operations is:

VS21 DEPART LHR 11:25 ARRIVE IAD 15:00

VS22 DEPART IAD 19:15 ARRIVE LHR 07:35+1 –

You can tell in the picture that it is a 787 by looking at the wingtips and the ‘waffle’ pattern on the jets.

This is an interesting development as British Airways just started flying a A380 to Dulles from Heathrow – a new plane battle in play? BA’s A380 was conveniently parked just a few gates away from Virgin’s 787-9. You can tell in the picture that it is an A380 by the double rows of windows across the entire plane.

The longest 787-9 route:

United has launched the longest route for it’s 1st 787-9s, flying them from Los Angeles (LAX) to Melbourne (MEL). At 7,921 miles, it is a long one. LAX-MEL actually is a perfect fit for what is called a ‘long-thin route’ – long route with low volume.