United Airlines takes delivery of 43rd Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner

With a fleet of just over 1,000 aircraft spread between 19 types, the arrival of one more probably does not provoke much excitement at the Chicago-based airline.

While that may or may not be the case, the reality is that on Wednesday, United Airlines (United) received its forty-third Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, which joins the twelve 787-8s and twenty-one 787-10s already in operation.

Australia's flag carrier, Qantas, is famous for its Kangaroo Route, which took more than three days with six stopovers to travel from Sydney to London in 1947.

The Lockheed Constellation stopped in Darwin (Australia), Singapore, Calcutta (India), Karachi (Pakistan), Cairo (Egypt), and Tripoli (Libya) before finally touching down in London.

Simple Flying often reports on ferry flights of ATR turboprops to Asia-Pacific, which follow a similar route to the original Qantas service and are usually quite interesting to write about.

Unfortunately, the delivery of United Airlines' 43rd 787-9 carried none of that romance or mystique; it was just a straightforward one-hour US domestic flight from Charleston, South Carolina, to Washington Dulles Airport, Virginia.

On February 12, 2025, the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, registration N22992 and MSN 63634, departed Charleston International Airport (CHS) at 11:53 and landed one hour later at Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) at 12:53.

According to Flightradar24, the aircraft had operated test/evaluation flights to and from Charleston International on January 29, February 2 and February 9, before its delivery.

Of those three flights, the first on January 29 looks most interesting. Flight BOE367 was also the longest of the three, departing Charleston at 14:42 and returning to the airport at 17:49.

On the following map, the yellow airplane is positioned above Blackshear, Georgia, where the aircraft was flying at 337 knots at an altitude of 16,400 feet and a vertical speed of -1,728 feet per minute.

United configures its 787-9s in a comfortable four-class layout of 257 seats, making it ideal for longer sectors where passenger comfort and premium seating are in high demand.

The aircraft has 48 seats in Polaris business class, 21 in Premium Plus, 39 in Economy Plus and 149 in the economy cabin.

United's seat map shows that all passengers can enjoy seatback entertainment, personal device entertainment, WiFi, power outlets and USB ports.

Business class passengers enjoy a full-flat 20.5" wide seat; in premium, the seat is 19" wide with a 38" pitch; economy plus has a 17.3" width at a 34" pitch, and economy seats are also 17.3" wide, although the pitch is set at 31".

Based on fleet data from ch-aviation, United now has 76 787 Dreamliners, with the 787-9 being the most popular variant.

United has close to 150 additional Boeing 787-9s on order, and in a stroke of good decision, it has chosen the GE GEnx engines for its aircraft, thereby avoiding all of the dramas afflicting one of its main Transpacific competitors, Air New Zealand.

My has contacted United Airlines to ask when and where the new 787-9 Dreamliner will enter commercial service. We will update this article as soon as we have that information.

The same fleet data shows that United Airlines has a total fleet of 1,005 aircraft, although 69 are listed as inactive.

The listing also shows United has unfilled orders for 673 aircraft, including 214 from Airbus and 459 from Boeing. The listing shows the fleet includes:

• 81 Airbus A319-100s
• 78 Airbus A320-200s
• 31 Airbus A321neos
• 529 Boeing 737s, including 40 -700s, 112 MAX 8s, 141 -800s, 88 MAX 9s, 12 -900s and 136 -900ERs
• 40 Boeing 757-200s and 21 757-300s
• 37 Boeing 767-300ERs and 16 767-400ERs
• 19 Boeing 777-200s, 55 777-200ERs and 22 777-300ERs
• 12 Boeing 787-8s, 43 787-9s and 21 787-10s

The aircraft on order from Airbus are 119 A321neos, 50 A321XLRs and 45 A350-900s, while the Boeing orders include 14 737 MAX 8s, 132 737 MAX 9s, 167 737 MAX 10s and 146 787-9 Dreamliners.