Boeing 787-9 — specifications and route economics
Boeing 787-9 (B789) — up to 420 seats, MTOW 254.0 t, Trent 1000-K2. With FlightCost you can calculate any route on this type for free: fuel, airport and air navigation charges, crew, maintenance, leasing and the break-even load factor — with a source for every number.
Calculate a route on the B789 →Drawing
Top view at the same scale as its class neighbours.
Specifications
| Parameter | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Seats, typical layout | 290 | OpenAP |
| Seats, maximum | 420 | OpenAP |
| Maximum take-off weight (MTOW), t | 254.0 | OpenAP |
| Maximum landing weight, t | 193.0 | OpenAP |
| Operating empty weight (OEW), t | 128.0 | OpenAP |
| Fuel capacity, t | 126.4 | OpenAP |
| Cruise Mach | 0.85 | OpenAP |
| Cruise altitude, m | 11,000 | OpenAP |
| Engine | Trent 1000-K2 | OpenAP |
| Number of engines | 2 | OpenAP |
| Length, m | 62.8 | OpenAP |
| Wingspan, m | 60.1 | OpenAP |
| Fuselage width, m | 5.77 | OpenAP |
| ICAO aerodrome code letter | E | OpenAP |
Economics on Frankfurt — Beijing
7,789 km along the flight path, 9.5 h block, 80% load factor — 336 of 420 seats (certified maximum), July. Calculated by the FlightCost engine; ownership, maintenance and crew rates are defaults: 45% of the total rests on assumptions.
| Item | EUR | Share | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fuel | 59,735 | 39% | calculation |
| Aircraft ownership | 39,972 | 26% | assumption |
| Airport charges | 12,180 | 8% | calculation |
| Crew | 11,471 | 7% | assumption |
| En-route charges | 11,073 | 7% | calculation |
| Distribution and sales | 10,833 | 7% | assumption |
| Maintenance | 7,284 | 5% | calculation |
| Ground handling | 1,639 | 1% | assumption |
| Terminal charge | 570 | 0% | assumption |
Types of this class on the same route
Same route, load factor and assumptions — only the aircraft type differs.
| Type | Seats, max | flight, EUR | per seat, EUR | CASK, ¢ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airbus A330-300 | 440 | 159,128 | 362 | 4.6 |
| Boeing 787-9 | 420 | 154,757 | 368 | 4.7 |
| Boeing 777-300ER | 550 | 204,345 | 372 | 4.8 |
| Airbus A380-800 | 853 | 322,206 | 378 | 4.8 |
| Airbus A330-200 | 406 | 154,717 | 381 | 4.9 |
| Airbus A350-900 | 440 | 172,441 | 392 | 5.0 |
| Boeing 777-200/200ER | 440 | 173,084 | 393 | 5.1 |
| Boeing 747-400 | 660 | 278,055 | 421 | 5.4 |
| Boeing 787-8 | 380 | 160,162 | 421 | 5.4 |
| Airbus A340-300 | 440 | 190,870 | 434 | 5.6 |
| Boeing 747-8 | 605 | 268,689 | 444 | 5.7 |
Lease rate and maintenance cost: estimates for ownership and upkeep
If you do not enter your own rates, the calculator uses estimates from weight and seat count. These are parametric, not operator data: each one can be replaced in the calculation.
| Lease, EUR per month | 1,264,248 |
| Utilisation, flight hours per month | 300 |
| Ownership per flight hour (lease ÷ hours), EUR | 4,214 |
| Maintenance, EUR per flight hour | 498 |
| Maintenance, EUR per cycle | 2,559 |
| Crew, EUR per flight hour | 932 |
| Crew, EUR per cycle | 346 |
Maintenance by year — US carriers' reports (Form 41)
Maintenance cost per block hour as reported by US carriers flying this type: direct (labour, materials, outside services) and full — with the maintenance department's overheads. Dollars of each year, not restated. 2020 stands above its neighbours: flying dropped, the fixed part of the cost stayed.
2025: direct USD 1,149, with overheads USD 1,694 per block hour, 2 carriers
Source: BTS, Form 41 Schedule P-5.2; analysis in the “Maintenance” research. →
Price and lease rate from publications
Aircraft list prices, transaction prices and market appraisals are shown separately from monthly lease rates. Each observation includes a date and a source link.
USD m
USD k per month
— — calculator default (new aircraft), in dollars of each year. The line is the lease the calculator uses without your own rates: EUR 1,264,000 a month as of October 2026 at 1.16 USD/EUR, restated in dollars of earlier years by the US CPI-U price index. It is an estimate for a new aircraft; points of another age are not directly comparable.
The lease market is recovering after 2020: AerCap's fleet yield (lease rents ÷ average lease assets) was 11.4 % in 2019, bottomed at 9.6 % in 2021, 10.8 % in 2025 — not yet back to 2019.
In 2026 dollars: the default is 1,467k, observations of 2018–2019 for the same age 1,476k. If the market returns to its pre-COVID level, the default will be close to it.
| Month | Kind | Value | Age | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-10 | Lease per month | USD 724 k | new | Aviation Strategy (данные AVAC) |
| 2020-10 | Aircraft price (market appraisal) | USD 107.7 m | new | Aviation Strategy (данные AVAC) |
| 2019-10 | Lease per month | USD 1,100 k | new | Aviation Strategy (данные AVAC) |
| 2019-10 | Aircraft price (market appraisal) | USD 146.9 m | new | Aviation Strategy (данные AVAC) |
| 2018-10 | Lease per month | USD 1,164 k | new | Aviation Strategy (данные AVAC) |
| 2018-10 | Aircraft price (market appraisal) | USD 143.2 m | new | Aviation Strategy (данные AVAC) |
| 2017-10 | Lease per month | USD 1,176 k | new | Aviation Strategy (данные AVAC) |
| 2017-10 | Aircraft price (market appraisal) | USD 141.6 m | new | Aviation Strategy (данные AVAC) |
| 2016-10 | Lease per month | USD 1,173 k | new | Aviation Strategy (данные AVAC) |
| 2016-10 | Aircraft price (market appraisal) | USD 139.9 m | new | Aviation Strategy (данные AVAC) |