A few firsts on Juneyao’s premier Dreamliner

The delivery of a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner last week to China’s Juneyao Airlines was a landmark occasion on multiple fronts. It is the first Boeing aircraft for the carrier. More significantly, it is the first twin aisle aircraft delivered to Juneyao. This makes it the first wide-body aircraft flying for a privately owned Chinese airline. It also delivers at least one in-cabin first on the passenger experience front.

A First in Business Class

Noise cancelling headsets for business class passengers is a common amenity on offer. Juneyao joins that party, but with a new option. The carrier offers its business class travelers Edifier NC headsets to meet this goal. But Juneyao’s NC headphones are special. They include a Bluetooth connectivity option.

The set appears to be the W860NB model (Buy your own here), supporting NFC pairing, active noise canceling, and smart controls on the headset, allowing playback and volume control.

Read More: Now boarding: Bluetooth audio connections

Alas, they will not pair to the on board Panasonic Avionics IFE kit via Bluetooth, at least not yet. Juneyao chose the eX3 inflight entertainment kit for its 787-9 fleet but it does not yet support Bluetooth pairing for passengers. That functionality is coming soon from both Panasonic and Zodiac but it is not flying today.

Juneyao also selected Panasonic’s inflight connectivity system to deliver inflight internet service on board. Some questions remain about activation timing and especially access to higher throughput satellite systems. Panasonic announced earlier this year plans to cooperate with China’s APSATCOM on the APSTAR-6D Ku-band satellite. Launch of the satellite is expected in early 2019, bringing significant additional capacity to the region. Presumably the service could activate prior to that on existing satellites. Details on those plans remain scarce.

Growing Traffic

As the market in China liberalizes the private airlines will carry an increased portion of the traffic, both domestically and abroad. The rapid pace of growth – China remains one of the fastest growing aviation markets according to IATA – and opening of more markets to additional carriers is a great opportunity for Juneyao and other, private airlines in the country.

“This delivery is our airline’s biggest milestone and marks a big step toward expanding our network in China and beyond,” said Wang Junjin, Chairman, Juneyao Airlines. “As the market-leading widebody model, the 787-9 Dreamliner will play a key role in our global business growth.”

Juneyao Airlines, previously an all-Airbus operator, mainly offers flights from Shanghai to more than 50 cities across China. In introducing the long-range 787 Dreamliner, the carrier expects to expand its international network. Initial target markets include Southeast Asia, Japan and Korea.

These shorter routes do not take full advantage of the range available from the 787-9 but remain significant. Five of the top ten international growth markets for the next 20 years touch China. All are regional within Asia and are covered by Juneyao’s plans.

The expected rebalancing in the Chinese economy away from investment and exports towards consumption as a key driver of economic growth will support strong growth in passenger demand over the long term, more than offsetting headwinds from the country’s comparatively poor demographic outlook. All told, the domestic market is on track to overtake the US to become the world’s largest market in the early-2020s. China-Chinese Taipei and China-Hong Kong, SAR will join the ranks of the top-10 largest international markets in the world by 2037. All told, five of the top-10 international routes will touch China by the end of our forecast horizon, up from three at present. – IATA’s 20 year passenger forecast issued 24 Oct 2018

To meet this growth the private Chinese carriers must join the state-backed operators in expanding fleet size and route networks. Moves like this one from Juneyao are a significant part of meeting that demand. The carrier currently holds orders for nine additional 787s.

Read More: Panasonic, APSATCOM announce “XTS” satellite plans

Some additional images of the 787 interior are available below.