British Airways launches first Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner at Delhi

British Airways' first Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft made a debut flight to Delhi from London on Monday.

For the first time, the airline has introduced a first-class cabin configuration in the aircraft and offers a total 216 seats. The aircraft has eight first class, 39 premium economy, 42 business and 127 economy class seats.

"This brand new aircraft is a centrepiece to our ?5 billion investment programme since 2011," said Moran Birger, regional commercial manager, south Asia at British Airways. The airline is investing 5 billion pounds in new aircraft and services for customers worldwide including India.

British Airways operates 49 weekly flights from London Heathrow to five cities -- New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. India is the second largest market for British Airways outside the United States and the United Kingdom. The new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft will fly five times a week on the London-Delhi route, the airline said.

"The new first class cabin has more storage space, a single dial to control seat recline, headrest, lumbar adjustment and ambient lighting," Robert Williams, the airlines' head of Asia Pacific sales here said.

British Airways has ordered a total of 22 Boeing 787-9 and nine have been delivered so far.

The airline said it has also signed an inter-line agreement with Vistara (which started operations in January) early this year. ?We have teamed up with Vistara most recently. The airline matches with our customers as a brand and is a great fit for us. It allows seamless connection to anyone flying with our airlines to any of the city in India,? Birger said. The airline already has an inter-line agreement with Air India and Jet Airways.

An interline agreement is a commercial agreement between two airlines which helps easy transfer of passengers from one airline to another.