Ethiopian Airlines’ first Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, named ‘Africa First’, touched down at Addis Ababa Bole International Airport recently. Ethiopian is the first airline in the world, outside Japan, and ahead of any airline in the Americas, Europe and the Middle East to operate the Dreamliner, the most technologically advanced commercial aircraft in the world.
Ethiopian has placed a firm order for 10 Dreamliners and will be receiving five of them before December 2012. On 17th September ‘Africa First’ will fly the first ever flight from Addis Ababa to Rome and London.
The B787’s interior design welcomes passengers on board with a tall, dramatically lit entryway that creates a sense of sky overhead, a treatment that continues throughout the cabin.
The wide fuselage provides the room for nine 47cm-wide Economy Class seats in a 3x3x3 configuration, offering comfort similar to a B747 Economy Class cabin.
Illuminated by energy-efficient light emitting diodes (LEDs), the brightness and the colour of the sky-like cabin ceiling can be controlled inflight by the crew. Flight attendants can give passengers a sense of daylight when desired, and simulate a night-time sky to help passengers rest.
The Dreamliner’s windows are the largest on any of today’s aircraft – 47cm tall and 28cm wide. This gives passengers a view to the horizon from any seat on the aircraft.
The window shades are different to most other commercial jetliners – electrochromatic window shades, rather than physical shades, give passengers the ability to dim the windows and still see the passing terrain.
