FORT WORTH, Texas — After years of delay, the world’s biggest airline is finally using one of the newest passenger jets.
American Airlines began flying the Boeing 787 between Dallas and Chicago last week — a warm-up for the jet’s real role on long international flights. By August, American will be flying 787s from the U.S. to Beijing, Argentina, Shanghai and Tokyo. More routes are in the works, company officials say.
The plane, which Boeing calls the Dreamliner, is starting to live up to its promise of giving more travelers the chance to fly nonstop to distant places.
Before, those trips probably would have required a connecting flight.
“For the passenger, it means one less stop and a lot of hours in time savings,” said Scott Hamilton, an aviation analyst at Leeham Co. Boeing said airlines around the world have added about 50 routes that didn’t exist before the 787.
The 787 is made with lots of lightweight carbon material and other advances to improve fuel efficiency by up to 20 percent. That cuts costs.
American Airlines CEO Doug Parker said it would be an overstatement to say that his airline would have ignored destinations like Beijing without the Dreamliner — they are strategic, important markets, he said.
“But the aircraft makes them much more viable and makes expansion into other routes much more likely,” Parker said.
Before Thursday, United was the only U.S. carrier with Dreamliners. Delta has ordered some.
