Boeing 787-9 vs Boeing 787-10

The Boeing 787-9 and 787-10 are the two larger Dreamliners, and the choice between them is a trade of range for seats. The 787-9 is the family's best seller, a 63 m aircraft seating around 296 in two classes with 7,565 nautical miles of range, enough for almost any city pair an airline might want. The 787-10 is a 5.5 m stretch of the same airframe, seating about 336 in two classes but with range cut to roughly 6,330 nautical miles because it carries the same fuel and the same wing while weighing more. The -10 first flew in 2017 and Singapore Airlines put it into service in 2018; the -9 has flown since 2014.

Because they share the wing, engines, cockpit and systems, the two have a common type rating and nearly identical maintenance, so airlines mix them freely. The 787-10 posts the lowest cost per seat of any Dreamliner on routes it can fill, which is why United, Singapore, KLM, Etihad and British Airways use it on dense medium- and long-haul sectors such as transatlantic trunks and intra-Asian routes of up to about twelve hours. The 787-9 is the one that opens ultra-long and thin routes, from Perth to London or Auckland to New York, where the -10 would run out of range or struggle to fill its extra forty seats.

Passenger experience

Inside, the cabins are the same width and feel the same: nine-abreast 3-3-3 economy on most airlines, with seats around 17.3 inches wide, large electronically dimmed windows, a 6,000 ft cabin altitude and higher humidity than metal jets, all of which make a long flight less tiring. The difference is length. The 787-10 has two or three more economy rows and often a bigger premium cabin, so boarding and deplaning take a little longer and the rear rows are further from a door. Premium passengers may prefer the -10 on routes where airlines fit newer business seats, but the hard product is an airline decision rather than a Boeing one. For the best economy seat on either, take a window well forward of the rear galley, and avoid the last two rows where the cabin narrows and recline is limited.

Which to choose

As a traveller you rarely get to choose, but the pattern is predictable: a 787-10 means a busy, medium-length route; a 787-9 means the airline needed range. For airlines, the -10 is the better aircraft wherever it can fly the mission and the -9 everywhere else, which is why most 787-10 operators also fly the -9 and few fly the -10 alone.