WASHINGTON, USA

THE first Boeing 787 Dreamliner took off yesterday for its new home in Japan, an all-new composite passenger plane the US aerospace giant touts as a game changer in the aviation industry.

All Nippon Airways, the launch customer for the 787 program, took delivery of the wide-body plane on Sunday, more than three years behind schedule due to design and production delays.

Painted in ANA’s special blue, white and red livery, the first 787 took off from Paine Field in Everett, Washington, at daybreak under cloudy skies, about three-quarters of an hour behind schedule.

It is expected to land Wednesday at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport.

The Japanese airline will be the first in the world to offer service on the 787: ANA plans to fly the aircraft on October 26 and 27 from Narita, Tokyo’s other main airport, to Hong Kong for its first commercial passenger flight.

The airline will also hold excursion flights on October 28 and 29 from Narita as a part of a promotional campaign.

Domestic flights from Tokyo’s Haneda airport to western cities of Okayama and Hiroshima are scheduled to begin on November 1.

The Dreamliner’s first regular international service will start from December for the Haneda-Beijing route, and then it will fly from Haneda to Frankfurt beginning in January.

ANA has another 54 Dreamliners on order.

The 787 is the first mid-sized airplane capable of flying long-range routes, responding to passengers’ demands for non-stop travel, the Chicago-based Boeing says.

Mainly built with lightweight composite materials, it consumes 20 per cent less fuel than comparable planes its size, according to Boeing.

That has helped Boeing pick up more than 800 orders for the 787 since the program was launched in 2004.

Boeing announced the latest order on September 16, from Air France-KLM Group, for 25 787s and options for 25 more.

Among the other airlines with orders on the books are soon-to-be-merged United Airlines and Continental Airlines; Qatar Airways; Japan Airlines; Etihad Airways; and Air India.

A Boeing spokesman said Monday that the company expects to produce between 25 and 30 of its new 787 and the 747-8, an updated version of its jumbo jet, this year.

But he did not say how many of each would be made, or which companies would be receiving them.

Boeing, the world’s second-biggest commercial aircraft maker behind Airbus, initially had planned to deliver the first plane to ANA in the first half of 2008.

But a series of delays in the 787 program has cost Boeing billions of dollars as some airlines cancelled their orders.

The 747-8 program is running nearly two years behind schedule. The launch customer for the 747-8 freight version, the Luxembourg-based cargo carrier Cargolux, called off delivery of its first plane on September 16, three days before the scheduled delivery.

Boeing said it was working to resolve unresolved problems with Cargolux.