By Dominic Gates, The Seattle Times –
SEATTLE — Japan Airlines on Sunday flew the first scheduled Boeing 787 Dreamliner passenger service into the U.S. as it inaugurated service between Tokyo and Boston.
The 16-hour flight from Japan was greeted in Boston by a welcoming delegation, including Japan Airlines Chairman Masaru Onishi. The aircraft took off Monday for the first return flight to Tokyo.
The huge marketing success of the mid-size Dreamliner — Japan Airlines configures the cabin with 186 seats — was partly driven by the fact that it offers airlines the chance to open new long-distance routes between city pairs that don’t have enough traffic to justify putting a bigger jumbo jet in service.
Tokyo-Boston “is exactly the kind of long-haul point-to-point route the 787 was designed to fly,” Boeing Japan President Mike Denton, who was on the flight, said in a statement from Japan Airlines.
At the departure gate ceremony in Tokyo, Japan Airlines President Yoshiharu Ueki said the airline “is making best use of the aircraft’s long-range capability, appropriate capacity, and its economic performance,” the airline statement said.
Initially, Japan Airlines will fly four times a week each way between the two cities.
