Just a few days after All Nippon Airways's first Boeing 787 suffered some slight surface damage to its engine inlet cowl after it hit a passenger boarding bridge, the airline is in the headlines again - btu this time it's all for a good cause it would seem.

A single seat on the first commercial flight of Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner has been bought for more than $34 000 (about R267 000 at R7.85/$) in a charity sale organised by Japan's ANA, the company said.

The airline auctioned six business class seats on the plane's inaugural flight, which leaves Tokyo's Narita airport bound for Hong Kong.

Bidders pushed up the cost of the ticket on eBay to the equivalent of $34,000 - around 13 times the price of a regular business class seat for a flight between the two cities.

ANA declined to disclose the identity of the winning bidder, who will be leaving Tokyo around midday on Wednesday and returning to the Japanese capital on Thursday.

The airline is planning to donate proceeds from the auctions to international environmental NGOs.

ANA also sold 100 economy class seats for the flight in the form of a tour, including one night's stay at a hotel in Hong Kong for 78 700 yen per adult.

A discount return economy ticket on ANA's Tokyo-Hong Kong route in late October can be bought at local travel agencies for around 45 000 yen.

The aircraft, Boeing's first 787 Dreamliner to go into service, landed in Japan late September, three years after it was originally promised to ANA.

The delivery came after a string of technical mishaps and delays that have cost US-based Boeing billions of dollars in lost or cancelled orders and seen it give ground to fierce rival Airbus.

Boeing says the twin-aisle 787's construction, partly from lightweight composite materials, means it consumes 20 percent less fuel than comparable planes, an attractive proposition for airlines facing soaring fuel costs. - AFP

Read more