British Airways’ 25th 787 Dreamliner Touches Down At Heathrow Home

The aircraft, registration G-ZBJI departed from the Boeing factory in Seattle at 18:08 local time yesterday and landed at Heathrow airport at 11:26 local London time this morning, with a total flight time of nine hours and 18 minutes.

British Airways' latest 787-8 will now spend two days in the airline's engineering base at Heathrow airport where it has its 'pre-service' inspection ahead of its inaugural customer flight.

After it has completed its inspection, the aircraft is scheduled to take its first customer journey to Montreal, as the BA095 on Sunday October 1.

Watch here to see what happened behind the scenes when the British Airways team took delivery of the aircraft and brought it to London:

Captain Stephen Riley, British Airways' director of flight operations, who flew the aircraft from Seattle to Heathrow, said: "It was a great experience collecting the aircraft from the Boeing delivery centre and flying it to its new home at our hub, Heathrow. It's a joy to fly and something really amazing to be part of. All the hard work over the last two-and-a-half years from our delivery team has been well worth it and in just 48-hours our customers will be able to enjoy the aircraft for themselves."

Nicholas Jones, British Airways' cabin service director who operated the delivery flight, said: "Being part of the delivery team has been a brilliant experience. It really does have that new car smell!

"We always get such great feedback from our customers about the Dreamliners - they love the special features from the bigger windows that help with motion sickness, to the lower cabin altitude and mood lighting, which help fight jet lag. I can't wait to get back on this aircraft when it starts flying."

Colin Lakin, British Airways' technical engineer who will be waiting to welcome the aircraft at Heathrow, said: "It is fantastic to see our 25th Dreamliner join the fleet - it really is a milestone moment for us. The aircraft will now spend two days at our engineering base where we add the finishing touches, such as the loading of in-flight entertainment and cabin equipment to give it that distinctive British Airways feel, before it starts flying our customers around the world on Sunday."

Stats and facts about the 787:

• This latest Boeing 787 Dreamliner, with the registration G-ZBJI, will be the ninth 787-8 to join the airline's fleet. British Airways also has 16 787-9s. Two further 787-9 aircraft and three 787-8 aircraft will be delivered in 2018, followed by 12 787-10s
• An empty 787 weighs around 118,000kg, which is roughly the equivalent to 29 elephants.
• It takes 250 litres of paint, five days and eight people to paint the aircraft
• The internal cabin altitude is the equivalent of 6,000ft, which is 2,000ft lower than other aircraft.
• The Dreamliner's wings are unique with a span of 197 feet (60 meters) and the curvature allows the aircraft to climb better and increases fuel efficiency
• The Dreamliner can reach a maximum speed of 954 kilometres per hour with a range of 15,200 kilometres, allowing the airline to fly the 787 on some of its longest flights such as Santiago in Chile and Chennai in India
• The windows in the 787 are thirty per cent bigger than any other aircraft so customers can maintain eye level with the horizon, which lessens motion sickness.
• The aircraft is also around 40 per cent quieter than other aircraft, giving customers the ideal environment to get some shut-eye.
• The windows on the 787 aircraft are made from electro chromosome-based glass, which has five stages of colour, ranging from completely dark to the brightest light. Passengers can adjust the colour with electronic dimmers.
• British Airways' 787-8 Dreamliners have three cabins World Traveller (economy), World Traveller Plus (premium economy) and Club World (business class), while the 787-9, which is 20 feet longer also has an exclusive eight-suite First cabin.
• The 787-8 can carry up to 214 customers and the 787-9 can carry up to 216.
• British Airways' new Seychelles route, which starts in March 2018, will be operated by a 787-8

To see more details about British Airways' 787s, visit the aircraft's new hub on the airline's website: https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/about-ba/whats-new/boeing-787-dreamliner

If you have Virtual Reality glasses, you can do a 360 degree interactive tour of British Airways' Dreamliner here.