{"id":95,"date":"2007-04-25T16:54:08","date_gmt":"2007-04-25T16:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.the-finance-zone.co.uk\/companies\/virgin-orders-15-boeing-dreamliners\/"},"modified":"2007-04-25T16:54:08","modified_gmt":"2007-04-25T16:54:08","slug":"virgin-orders-15-boeing-dreamliners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/2007\/04\/25\/virgin-orders-15-boeing-dreamliners\/","title":{"rendered":"Virgin orders 15 Boeing Dreamliners"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virgin Atlantic has ordered 15 of Boeing’s fuel-efficient Dreamliner passenger jets – the largest European order to date of the aircraft.<\/span><\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n

Richard Branson’s airline has taken out options on another eight 787 aircraft and purchase rights on a further 20. <\/span><\/p>\n

The deal could be worth $8bn (\u00c2\u00a33.99bn) with the planes delivered from 2011. <\/span><\/p>\n

Virgin also revealed plans to fly the first biofuel-powered commercial aircraft, a milestone in the air industry’s quest to reduce emissions. <\/span><\/p>\n

In partnership with US aerospace giant Boeing and engine builder GE Aviation, the inaugural test flight on one of Virgin’s 747 jumbo jets is expected to take place next year. <\/span><\/p>\n

Alternatives<\/span><\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n

Virgin has yet to make clear what kind of clean fuel technology it intends to use in its “green” maiden voyage. <\/span><\/p>\n

The use of ethanol instead of fossil fuels is a growing trend in the car market – but ethanol is unsuitable for aircraft, as it freezes at 15,000 feet. <\/span><\/p>\n

The move is the latest by Virgin to cut carbon dioxide emitted by its planes and reduce noise emissions. <\/span><\/p>\n

The airline has been looking into alternatives to traditional taxi-ing procedures at the world’s busiest airports and has trialled the towing of planes to take-off areas at London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports. <\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, last year the Virgin boss pledged profits worth $3bn (\u00c2\u00a31.6bn) over 10 years from his airline and train empire towards renewable energy initiatives. <\/span><\/p>\n

Boeing says its 787-9, which can carry up to 290 passengers depending on the bed or seat layout, burns 27% less fuel per passenger than the A340-300, the aircraft it will replace in the Virgin Atlantic fleet. <\/span><\/p>\n

It also claims the aircraft will make less noise, which could benefit local communities living close to airports. <\/span><\/p>\n

With a range of up to 8,500 nautical miles, the aircraft will be able to fly direct from London to Perth in Australia initially and eventually from London to Sydney and Melbourne. <\/span><\/p>\n

Virgin Atlantic will also offer a new route from London to Hawaii, and from next year, trans-pacific flights from Sydney to LA.<\/p>\n

source:bbc.co.uk
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Virgin Atlantic has ordered 15 of Boeing’s fuel-efficient Dreamliner passenger jets – the largest European order to date of the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-companies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}