Rankings / Aircraft types / Boeing 787-9
2025 fuel burnBoeing 787-9
The 787-9 is the stretched Dreamliner, in service since 2014 with All Nippon Airways, and the most-flown 787 in this data. United and American are its biggest US operators.
- 1,884gallons per airborne hour
- 74.5seat-miles per gallon
- 264seats per flight on average
- 19,060gallons burned per flight
What the figures say
Boeing 787-9 ranks 12 of 25 types for seat-miles per gallon in 2025, at 74.5. The Boeing 737-800, the most common type in the table, flew 79.1, so a gallon on the Boeing 787-9 carried a seat 5.8% less far. Over 1,000 miles, one seat on this type accounts for about 131 kg of CO2 from the fuel burned.
US airlines burned 631 million gallons on the Boeing 787-9 in 2025, 3.4% of the fuel burned on all scheduled passenger flying, over 335 thousand airborne hours and 33 thousand departures. The average flight spent 10.1 hours in the air and burned 19,060 gallons.
Since 2016, when it was first flown in volume, the type's figure has fallen from 74.8 to 74.5 seat-miles per gallon (0.3%). Its best year was 2019, at 76.9.
Airlines get different results from the same aircraft. American Airlines flew 76.7 seat-miles per gallon on it and United Airlines 73.4, a gap of 4.5%. The seat count explains most of it: American Airlines put 278 seats on each flight against 257 at United Airlines. Flight length differs too, at 9.1 hours in the air per flight for American Airlines and 10.7 for United Airlines. Longer flights normally burn less fuel per seat-mile, so the longer flights at United Airlines should have helped it, not hurt it. What's left comes from taxi and holding time, weight, engines, how each airline operates and how it allocates fuel to types when it reports, and the filings can't separate those.
What one seat costs the climate
CO2 for one seat on a Boeing 787-9, from the fuel burned, at the 2025 average.
- 65 kgover 500 miles
- 131 kgover 1,000 miles
- 262 kgover 2,000 miles
Who flies it, and how they burn
Boeing 787-9 by airline, 2025
| Airline | Fuel (million gallons) | Gallons per airborne hour | Seats per flight | Hours per flight | Seat-miles per gallon |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 420 | 1,872 | 257 | 10.7 | 73.4 |
| American Airlines | 211 | 1,909 | 278 | 9.1 | 76.7 |
Seats on the Boeing 787-9, airline by airline
The Boeing 787-9 has 219 seats at United Airlines and 271 at American Airlines, 24% more on the same model. The seat count is what each airline reports for its own aircraft in 2025, for airlines with 10 or more.
Boeing 787-9 fleets, 2025
| Airline | Aircraft | Average seats | Fewest to most | Average age |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 48 | 219.0 | 219 | 6.2 |
| American Airlines | 33 | 271.3 | 244 to 285 | 5.2 |
See every airline's fleet on the fleets page.
Similar-sized aircraft
These types carry within about 25 seats of the Boeing 787-9, so they compete for the same routes.
How to read this. Fuel is what airlines issued to the type in 2025, as filed with the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics, counted only for the hours spent on scheduled passenger flights and divided by the hours in the air. It includes fuel burned taxiing and holding, so it's higher than the cruise figure in a manual. CO2 is 9.75 kg per gallon of jet fuel.
More from Boeing
Browse the Boeing manufacturer hub and its other profiled types:
- Boeing 737 MAX 9
- Boeing 737 MAX 8
- Boeing 787-10
- Boeing 737-900ER
- Boeing 757-300
- Boeing 737-800
- Boeing 787-8
- Boeing 737-700
- Boeing 757-200
- Boeing 767-400ER
- Boeing 777-300ER
- Boeing 777-200
- Boeing 767-300ER
Nearby in fuel efficiency
Types on either side of this one in the seat-miles per gallon table, regardless of size:
Source: US Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), Schedule T-2 fuel and airborne hours; US EPA jet-fuel CO2 factor. See the methodology and flight-hour definitions.
Back to all aircraft types, or see how the airlines compare on the airline pages.