Virgin Atlantic (VS, London Heathrow) has named Boston as its maiden B787-9 destination. Addressing reporters in London last week, founder Richard Branson said his carrier is expecting its first of sixteen B787-9s, G-VNEW (msn 40956), in September ahead of its maiden flight on October 28. Thereafter, he said, a second of the type is due from Boeing (BOE, Washington National) in December following which it will be used on London Heathrow to Washington Dulles flights.
The third and fourth aircraft, due in January and February 2015, will be used to serve New York Newark and New York JFK respectively.
Chief executive Craig Kreeger says the type will account for over half his airline's fleet by 2018.
While the smaller B787-8 is already in service with other European carriers including Norwegian Long Haul (Oslo Gardermoen), Thomson Airways (London Luton), British Airways (BA, London Heathrow), Arke Fly (Amsterdam Schiphol) and LOT Polish Airlines (LO, Warsaw Chopin), Virgin will be the -9's European launch customer.
At present, Virgin's longhaul fleet constitutes ten A330-300s, three A340-300s, thirteen A340-600s, and twelve B747-400s.
