An Air Canada Boeing Dreamliner 787-8 landed in Iqaluit on Jan. 5. Both Air Canada and Boeing are not saying much about why the airliner is in Iqaluit, other than for unspecified further testing. - Casey Lessard/NNSL photo |
Dreamliner touches down
Air Canada confirms Boeing in Iqaluit for further testing, keeps details secret
Walter Strong
Northern News Services
Published Monday, January 12, 2015
NUNAVUT
Neither Air Canada nor Boeing will do much beyond confirm that a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner that landed in Iqaluit on Jan. 5 was here for further flight testing.
It's not unusual for aircraft manufacturers to choose Iqaluit as a cold weather testing ground. French airplane manufacturer Airbus was here in January 2013 to test its giant A380.
But the 787-8 is already well into production and is serving several routes for Air Canada, so it is not immediately clear what Air Canada and Boeing could be testing for.
If they came to town looking for cold weather, they found it.
Environment Canada recorded a high of -28 C on the day and a low of -34.5 C, and that's not counting wind chill which brought the temperature down to as cold as -48 C. One would hope that was cold enough.
Branded with Air Canada detailing and logos, the aircraft was in Iqaluit for less than a week. Representatives from either company would not confirm any details regarding the testing other than to say it was part of regular ongoing testing.
An Air Canada spokesperson confirmed the company has already taken possession of six of the 37 Dreamliners Air Canada committed to buying from Boeing. The remainder are scheduled to be delivered by the end of 2019.
Fifteen of the 787s will be 787-8s, while 22 will be the larger capacity 787-9.
The list price for a Boeing 787-8 is $218.3 million, and the list price of a 787-9 is $257.1 million. The Wall Street Journal reports that airlines get a discount rate that can cut the list price in half.
The 787-8 seats 242, has a listed cruising speed of 913 km/h at a cruise altitude of 10,700 metres. It carries up to 126,210 litres of fuel, giving the aircraft a 14,530 km flight range.
This is, according to an Air Canada press release, a 20 per cent fuel efficiency improvement over the Boeing 767s and Airbus A319s the 787 is destined to replace.
Air Canada's 767s and A319s will be transferred to service in the company's "leisure carrier subsidiary," Air Canada Rouge.
Air Canada first introduced the 787s to regular service on its Toronto-Tokyo/Haneda routes and its Toronto-Tel Aviv route this past summer. This winter, Air Canada began converting its Vancouver to Tokyo and Shanghai routes to 787 service.
The new wide-body airliner is meant to expand Air Canada's brand appeal as an international carrier.
International business class seating – seating formerly known as first class - is 20 "lie-flat executive pods" that allow a passenger to recline fully flat, as if in a bed.
International business class travellers also enjoy individual 18-inch "personal entertainment screens" and fresh, in-flight-brewed, Lavazza espresso and cappuccino. The Dreamliner was reportedly plagued by early production and design issues related to its use of cutting edge material technologies. But whatever challenges early development of the Dreamliner presented the company, it quickly became a hot seller.
Boeing delivered 114 Dreamliners last year and is sitting on 843 unfilled 787 orders as of Dec. 31, 2014. This, according to a Boeing press release, was part of a record production and sales year for the company which delivered 723 commercial aircraft in 2014 and booked 1,432 orders for $232.7 billion in list price value.
