First Scoot Dreamliner expected in Nov

[SINGAPORE] Budget carrier Scoot said yesterday that it expected the Boeing 787-9, the first of its new fleet of 20 B787s worth US$4.6 billion, to be delivered and begin operations in November this year.

Scoot took over the order from parent company Singapore Airlines (SIA) in late 2011, and converted it so that it consisted of 10 of the larger B787-9 and 10 of the original B787-8. Each B787-8 costs the airline US$211.8 million while each B787-9s costs US$249.5 million.

The first five planes to be delivered will be the B787-9s. Scoot expects to have about nine new aircraft by next year. The B787-9s will fly to Japan, Australia and Taiwan initially and the airline will progressively retire its current fleet of Boeing 777-200s by the middle of next year. Its six B777s were passed down from SIA and have an average load factor of 81 per cent …