The aircraft touched down at Manchester airport yesterday (June 28) after being flown from the Boeing factory in Charleston, South Carolina.

It is scheduled to operate its first service from the terminal to Malaga on July 1, before beginning a regular Manchester to Montego Bay route on July 15.

The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner is capable of carrying 345 passengers and will service other long haul destinations including Mexico and Dominican Republic.

Thomson Airways is due to receive up to four of the model before June 2019 – taking its fleet to nine Boeing 787-8s and five Boeing 787-9s.

Managing director John Murphy said: “We are delighted to welcome the first 787-9 Dreamliner into our fleet. Since we took delivery of our first Dreamliner in May 2013, the aircraft has been a big hit with our customers and we’ve received excellent feedback. We are committed to investing in our fleet to innovate our customer’s flying experience. Our new bigger Dreamliner will allow even more customers to enjoy the revolutionary benefits this aircraft offers, when traveling to their holiday destination.

This aircraft is key to expanding our long haul programme.  We are always looking at new and exciting destinations to offer customers even more holiday choice.  For this winter we have introduced holidays to Sri Lanka and next summer St Lucia will also be added to our holiday line-up.

The Dreamliner 787-9 is also a significant milestone for us in our rebrand journey, as the new aircraft has arrived in the new Tui livery.  We see this as the perfect opportunity to begin introducing our customers to the Tui brand as we embark on our journey of switching from Thomson at the latter part of 2017.”