The 787′s maiden commercial flight

After what seems like an eternity of delays, endless press releases and sheepish apologies the Boeing 787 finally entered service today with Japanese carrier ANA. NH7871 today was operated by JA801A and touched down in Hong Kong around 15:50 local time. As you might expect the flight was welcomed by a water cannon salute and an army of photographers.

At around four hours this is, of course, a much shorter mission than the 787 will typically fly. During the early stages of adopotion into the fleet, shorter flights such as these are used for crew training and familiarization. In fact this flight itself is a special charter. Regular operations will start on November 1st with the 787 set to operate flights from Haneda and Okayama and Hiroshima. In the longer term the 787 will be phased onto routes from Tokyo to Beijing and then Frankfurt.