What is the Boeing 787 Dreamliner's maximum passenger capacity?

In modern long-haul aviation, the Boeing 787 is one of the most dominant families of widebody aircraft. Also known as the 'Dreamliner,' the 787 is a clean-sheet twinjet that exemplifies the 21st-century industry trend that has seen airlines and manufacturers move away from large quadjets to smaller twin-engine designs, serving point-to-point routes rather than focusing high-volume flights through hubs.

The 787 first flew in December 2009, and went on to enter service just under two years later, in October 2011, with Japanese carrier and Star Alliance member All Nippon Airways, with ANA having since gone on to operate all three variants of the type.

While the 787 isn't the most capacious aircraft out there, regulations do allow its maximum capacity to run rather high if needed. Let's examine the key facts.

Understanding the three Dreamliner variants

When looking at the maximum capacity of the 787, it is important to understand, first of all, that the Dreamliner family consists of three different variants. Size is the key differentiator between these, which subsequently results in different maximum capacities for each variant, although it also has an impact on the aircraft's range. The smallest variant, and the first to enter service, was the Boeing 787-8 model.

According to Boeing, the 787-8 is 57 meters (186 feet) long, and has a range of 7,305 NM (13,530 km). It shares certain metrics with its fellow variants, such as its 60-meter (197 feet) wingspan and 17-meter (56 feet) height. Furthermore, all three 787 variants can be powered by either General Electric GEnx-1B or Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines. Boeing's current data shows that it has delivered 397 787-8s.

Meanwhile, the mid-sized Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner clocks in at 63 meters (206 feet) in length. This particular version has the longest range, with an impressive figure of 7,565 NM (14,010 km).

According to the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), both the short-fuselage 787-8 and the mid-sized 787-9 have the same ceiling, namely 43,100 feet (13,100 meters) above mean sea level. Offering an ideal compromise between range and capacity, Boeing has delivered 650 787-9s.

As for the largest of the three variants that currently make up the Boeing 787 Dreamliner series, the 787-10 clocks in at a length of 68 meters (224 feet), with the difference between this version and the 787-9 being slightly smaller than between the 787-9 and the 787-8.

The aircraft has the lowest range and ceiling of the three variants, posting respective figures of 6,330 NM (11,730 km) and 41,100 feet (12,500 meters). The 787-10 has had the fewest sales, with 118 deliveries to date.

Maximum capacities

Boeing has enjoyed immense success with its 787 series, selling all three variants to a wide variety of operators around the world. Given its primary function as an efficient long-haul aircraft, the type is primarily operated by full-service and legacy carriers, with intercontinental flying playing less of a role in the low-cost sector. With that being said, certain budget or leisure operators of the 787 include:

• Norse Atlantic Airways.
• Scoot.
• TUI Airways.

With this in mind, there are countless different configurations used all around the world by operators of the 787. Still, Boeing offers guidance by noting that a typical two-class capacity for the short-fuselage 787-8 would have 248 seats onboard, compared to 296 for the mid-sized 787-9 and 336 for the stretched-fuselage 787-10. In reality, such jets can have as few as one and as many as four classes.

For one-class configurations, a separate Boeing document that was last revised in February 2023 notes that such a layout on the short-fuselage 787-8 variant of the Dreamliner family would typically have a maximum capacity of 359 seats.

This figure then rises to 406 for the mid-sized 787-9 and a whopping 440 for the stretched-fuselage 787-10. However, in some instances, these differ from the exit limits.

According to a post made in 2024 by Dr Sasidharan Murugan on LinkedIn, an aircraft's exit limit is defined as "the maximum number of passengers an aircraft is certified to safely evacuate within 90 seconds, using only half the available exits."

Murugan adds that "this certification ensures a swift evacuation in case of an emergency." As seen below, the maximum capacity is only the same as the exit limit for one variant of the 787 family, with few airlines choosing to go so high:

• 787-8 exit limit: 381.
• 787-9 exit limit: 420.
• 787-10 exit limit: 440.

The highest-capacity 787-8s in service today

The chance of any airline configuring its Boeing 787s with the absolute maximum number of possible seats is highly unlikely. Therefore, it is interesting to observe the actual highest capacities of currently active Dreamliners in order to get an idea of the most seats that you are currently likely to come across.

We shall do so by making use of current fleet data made available by ch-aviation's hefty database.

Starting with the Boeing 787-8 variant, ch-aviation's data shows that the highest-capacity examples of the short-fuselage Dreamliner that are currently active in the world today are flown by All Nippon Airways and Jetstar Airways.

At ANA, the Star Alliance carrier has configured certain examples with a high-density configuration for use on busy domestic corridors, with 323 economy and 12 business class seats.

Data from aeroLOPA shows that the former of these cabins features the standard 3-3-3 layout, while the latter has six-abreast 2-2-2 seating.

These aircraft's total capacity of 335 seats is matched by that of Australian low-cost carrier and Qantas subsidiary Jetstar Airways, whose 787-8s have 314 economy and 21 premium economy seats onboard. The latter cabin has recliners in a 2-3-2 configuration.

Interestingly, while these are the highest-capacity Boeing 787-8 configurations overall, ch-aviation does list one aircraft as having a higher number of economy class seats.

The Dreamliner in question flies for TUI Airways UK under the registration G-TUID, and has a one-class configuration with space for a whopping 325 economy passengers. Interestingly, TUI does not have any one-class 787-9s.

The highest-capacity 787-9s in service today

Moving on to the popular mid-sized Boeing 787-9 variant, certain examples of this model of the Dreamliner have the capacity to seat almost 400 passengers onboard.

Specifically, ch-aviation lists two active 787-9s from Japanese carrier All Nippon Airways as having some 395 seats onboard, with this figure comprising 377 economy and 18 business class seats.

As Simple Flying explored in 2021, widebodies are a common sight on Japanese domestic flights due to the busy market.

Both of these aircraft are more than 10 years old. However, it seems that, more recently, ANA has been configuring its domestic 787-9s with slightly fewer seats, and an increased emphasis on business class.

Indeed, ch-aviation's current data also lists three four-year-old mid-sized Dreamliners at All Nippon Airways with 'only' 375 seats onboard. This figure comprises 347 economy and 28 business class seats.

Moving away from the busy Japanese domestic market, other high-density configurations can be found at operators of the 787-9 that serve the low-cost and leisure sectors.

For example, ch-aviation lists Neos Air as having one such Dreamliner with 355 seats onboard (327 economy and 28 premium economy), while Air Premia and Norse Atlantic both have 344-seat two-class configurations.

Spanish carrier Air Europa is another notable 787-9 operator with high-density layouts for its 787-9s, with these seating either 339 (307 economy and 32 business) or 333 (303 economy and 30 business) passengers.

According to aeroLOPA, the former has a more favorable business class layout, with a 1-2-1 configuration, while the latter has 2-2-2 seating where the window seats lack direct aisle access.

The highest-capacity 787-10s in service today

With only just over 100 examples of the stretched-fuselage Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner having been delivered to date, high-density examples of the type are few and far between.

Unsurprisingly, however, the carrier that does stand out for having a layout with more seats onboard than any other is All Nippon Airways, with the 787-10's larger size offering valuable extra capacity on busy domestic routes.

According to ch-aviation, ANA currently has five active examples of the type that have 429 seats onboard, just 11 short of the model's exit limit. This figure comprises 401 in economy class and 28 in business class, with the former cabin largely laid out in a 3-3-3 setup.

However, certain rear rows have a 2-3-2 layout as the fuselage of the aircraft narrows, making them ideal for traveling couples. As for business class, this cabin is laid out six abreast in a 2-2-2 configuration.

The second-highest amount of seats that can currently be found onboard a 787-10 is 367, with the carrier in question also being an Asian operator, namely Vietnam Airlines.

The SkyTeam member configures these planes with two classes, with its overall capacity split between 343 seats in economy class and 24 in business class.

Unlike the ANA layout, every seat in business class on these aircraft has direct aisle access thanks to the more favorable four-abreast 1-2-1 configuration.