Air China has taken delivery of its first Boeing 787-9 aircraft in North Charleston, the U.S., marking the first Chinese customer with the stretched Dreamliner.

According to flightradar24, the 787-9 Dreamliner, Registration B-7877 performing delivery flight CA79, departed from Charleston Airport at 3:46 p.m., Thursday local time and arrived at Beijing Capital International Airport around 6:26 p.m. Friday.

The 787-9 is configured with 293 seats in a three-class layout - 30 lie-flat seats in Business Class (2-2-2) in rows of 11-15, 34 seats in Premium Economy Class, arranged 3-3-3 from rows 31 through 34, and 229 Economy seats also stacked 3-3-3 from rows 35 through 61.

Air China will operate the first 787 flight from Beijing to Chengdu (CA4114) on May 26. Next, the 787-9 will be deployed on domestic routes to Shanghai (May 27) and Guangzhou (July 1) before serving long-haul routes to Frankfurt (July 15) and Rome (August 1).

Air China placed its order for 15 787-8s in 2005 before changing the order to 15 787-9s in 2010 due to long-delayed delivery. The flag carrier is scheduled to take delivery of seven 787-9s in 2016, with the rest pending delivery by 2018.

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