New jet restores excitement to flying
TOKYO – As the Boeing 787 Dreamliner nosed upward into the clouds, the engines purred rather than roared.
The recent All Nippon Airways domestic flight was anything but a routine route for many passengers. A year after ANA launched the world’s first 787 flights, Japanese travelers are still agog.
In an era when flying is more about diminished expectations than adventure, airlines like ANA hope the technologically advanced midsize 787 will put some of the thrill back into the air at 35,000 feet. So far, it seems to be working.
“Many, many people are excited,” ANA flight attendant Shoko Yoshimura said aboard the recent 787 flight from Tokyo to Fukuoka on the island of Kyushu.
The 787’s high-ceiling cabin glows with pastel colors. Its spacious interior, increased cabin pressure and higher humidity are aimed at making cross-the-world journeys less taxing on bodies. And its fuel-sipping technology and ability to cover long distances allows airlines to tear up old business models that left smaller market airports out of their flight paths. It hasn’t been profitable for airlines to try to fill larger aircraft flying into secondary airports. ANA is outfitting its long-haul 787 with only 46 business-class and 112 economy seats.
“It gave us the opportunity to open up new markets – even secondary markets,” said Kohei Tsuji, ANA’s director of network planning. ANA anticipates having 20 Dreamliners by the end of March. According to Bloomberg, ANA agreed Friday to buy 11 more Dreamliners for delivery beginning in 2018, bringing the total of ordered planes to 66.
The plane has quickly become the envy of the industry. In a spring survey by ANA of 800 passengers who had flown its 787 between Tokyo and Frankfurt, Germany, 98 percent said they wanted another chance to fly the Dreamliner, no matter what airline’s logo was on the plane. A quarter of them said they’d go out of their way to board the new aircraft again.
“The 787 offers an emotional experience,” said Robert Herbst, an aviation industry consultant who operates AirlineFinancials.com. “That’s something passengers haven’t had for a very long time.”
It offers perks that even those who sit in the back of the plane in economy can enjoy. Passengers stepping onto an ANA 787 are greeted by flight attendants standing in the chamber-like entrance with a high ceiling – creating a sense of airy space rather than the feeling of entering a cramped tube.
“It’s a very beautiful plane and very comfortable to ride on,” said one passenger on the Tokyo-Fukuoka flight, who would only give his first name, Takahiro.
“The bathrooms are especially wonderful,” the 29-year-old gushed. “The ceilings are high. You feel so much air. It feels good. And it’s environmentally kind.”
As the 787 lifts off, the rumble of engines is muffled. The twin engines are equipped with noise-reducing chevrons that lower the sound of jet blasts by controlling how air passes through and around them.
“It was quiet. I was surprised,” Gonzalo Guerri, a Chilean tourist visiting Fukuoka, said after he gathered his luggage from the 787 flight.