Etihad Airways (EY, Abu Dhabi International) took delivery of its first B787-9, A6-BLA (msn 39646), on Saturday, January 3, 2015, the first operator in the Middle East to do so.

"We will first use the aircraft on routes to cities such as Düsseldorf, Houston Intercontinental, Mumbai International, Brisbane International, and Moscow Domodedovo and will have over 70 within the fleet, once our order is complete," Peter Baumgartner, chief commercial officer for Etihad Airways said.

The aircraft is the first of seventy-one Dreamliners the Abu Dhabi International-based carrier has on order from Boeing (BOE, Washington National) which includes forty-one B787-9s and thirty B787-10s.