March 27, 2023

On Friday, September 2nd, WestJet acquired its seventh Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner – its first new widebody plane since June 2020. With Boeing now in a position to supply Dreamliners as soon as once more, WestJet can proceed increasing its long-haul fleet and serve extra European locations. Right this moment, let’s check out the most recent Boeing 787 working out of Canada and its fascinating supply flight.

Supply flight and plane particulars

In line with BOE Household Flights, the plane is a 787-9 variant registered as C-FAJA and has producer serial quantity (MSN) 64982 and line quantity 1129. The plane was delivered on September 2nd and departed Boeing’s services in Charleston (CHS) at 17:34. Flying for 4 hours and 14 minutes, FlightRadar24.com notes that the jet touched down at WestJet’s predominant hub at Calgary Worldwide Airport (YYC) at 19:48 native time.

SIMPLEFLYING VIDEO OF THE DAY

C-FAJA was first noticed at CHS in late Could 2022 totally painted with engines put in. The jet had its first take a look at flight on June 1st, with subsequent take a look at flights going down on June tenth, and several other instances over the course of July and August. In complete, the plane had 9 take a look at flights and had gathered 16 hours and 21 minutes of flight time.

The plane flew at a better than typical altitude, prompting a purple line flight path on FlightRadar24. Photograph: FlightRadar24.com

Excessive-altitude supply flight?

The one fascinating level in regards to the plane’s supply flight on Friday was the truth that it flew at a better than regular altitude. Certainly, reporting on incidents and plane deliveries, we hardly ever get to see the ‘purple line’ displayed by FlightRadar24.com for higher-altitude operations. Certainly, most flights that we see on this flight monitoring service have a deep purple line, indicating a cruising altitude of round 35,000 ft. Slightly than the everyday cruising altitude, C-FAJA flew from Charleston to Calgary at 43,000 ft. So why is that this?

Nicely, as we defined in a 2019 article, pilots usually select to fly at this altitude as it’s the optimum peak for industrial operations. At this altitude, carriers keep away from a large quantity of turbulence that may happen at decrease ranges. Moreover, most thunderstorms, extreme climate incidents, and birds may be averted whereas above 35,000 ft. Lastly, the air at this peak is even thinner, which additional reduces the plane’s drag, growing its gasoline effectivity.

Whereas plane might cruise at an altitude between 35,000 and 38,000 ft, this plane was at 43,000 ft for many of its journey. Photograph: FlightRadar24.com

Newly-built, fortunate quantity seven

Similar to KLM’s most up-to-date Boeing 787-10 supply, WestJet has needed to wait fairly a while for its latest 787-9 Dreamliner. That is, after all, as a consequence of Boeing’s manufacturing points, which wanted to be labored out and cleared by the FAA. Curiously, nonetheless, in contrast to KLM’s current 787 supply (which has an airframe now almost two and a half years previous), WestJet’s Dreamliner was really constructed fairly lately.

With Boeing’s backlog and prolonged time checking out manufacturing points, many Dreamliners had been constructed however undeliverable. Total, because of this many 787s that are “newly delivered” to airways, can be as previous as two or three years. In terms of C-FAJA, nonetheless, the plane is now simply 4 months previous.

WestJet’s fleet of 787s are used to function transatlantic providers to London, Paris, Barcelona, Rome, and Dublin. The airline additionally makes use of Boeing 737s to fly transatlantic from Halifax to a number of European locations.

Have you ever flown on any of WestJet’s 787-9s but? Share your experiences by leaving a remark!

Sources: BOE Household Flights, FlightRadar24.com, Planespotters.web

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