Low-cost carrier Scoot has earmarked Sydney, Perth and Hong Kong as the first three cities for Boeing 787-9 operations.
The Singapore Airlines-owned airline has scheduled first flights with the larger version of the Dreamliner to those three cities in the week starting Sunday, March 29 2015, according to the Airline Route website.
Bangkok (Don Mueang) was due to follow on April 27, 2015, with the Gold Coast to come online the day after.
The Chinese cities of Tianjin, Shenyang and Qingdao were due to be operated by 787-9s from May.
Scoot chief executive Campbell Wilson said recently the airline was due to receive its first 787 in November, with the Dreamliner to replace all six Boeing 777-200s the airline currently flies by the middle of 2015.
The airline has 20 Dreamliner’s on order – 10 787-8s with 335 seats and 10 787-9s with 375 seats.
“Bringing in a new aircraft type – we will be the first 787 operator based in Singapore – carries with it a lot of preparatory work, regulatory work, transformative work with respect to the company and pilot training and all that,” Wilson says in the September edition of Australian Aviation magazine.
“It is a substantial change to the business and that’s why we will use the 787s to retire the 777s in fairly short order.”
The 787s will have wifi internet connectivity for a fee, as well as in-seat power throughout the cabin.
Sydney was Scoot’s inaugural route when it launched operations in June 2012.
