Boeing Co. delivered the first 787-10 Dreamliner to Singapore Airlines on Sunday in North Charleston, the only place the company builds the newest and largest member of the 787 family.

About 3,000 people marked the milestone at Boeing’s North Charleston site, the company said. The ceremonial key to the plane was handed to Singapore Airlines Chief Executive Goh Choon Phong on the tarmac, Reuters reported. The new jet was parked in front of a line of about 10 787s in various stages of completion, according to Reuters.

“It is an honour for us to be the world’s first airline to take delivery of this amazing aircraft,” Goh said, according to Boeing. “The 787-10 is a magnificent piece of engineering and truly a work of art. It will be an important element in our overall growth strategy, enabling us to expand our network and strengthen our operations.”

Kevin McAllister, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, called it “a big day for all of us at Boeing and for our global supplier partners.”

“We are thrilled to deliver the first 787-10 Dreamliner to Singapore Airlines, one of the world’s leading carriers,” McAllister said.

Why only North Charleston

The 787-10 is a stretch of the 787-9. Its midbody is too large to fit inside the modified 747 Dreamlifters that carry airplane sections between North Charleston and Boeing’s other 787 final assembly site in Everett, Wash., The Post and Courier has reported. That makes the North Charleston campus the only Boeing site that builds all three 787 models.

The plant, which has about 7,000 workers, is not unionized, unlike Boeing’s Washington state assembly lines, Reuters reported.

The first 787-10 made its first flight from Charleston International Airport on March 31, 2017, the first time a Boeing plane made its debut flight outside the Seattle area, The Post and Courier reported at the time. Between 5,000 and 6,000 Boeing South Carolina employees watched the takeoff. Last October, the first 787-10 built for an airline customer rolled out of the North Charleston campus, bound for Singapore Airlines, the newspaper reported.

The airplane

The 787-10 is 223 feet long, 18 feet longer than the 787-9, Reuters reported. Boeing says it can seat about 330 passengers in a standard two-class layout, about 40 more than the 787-9, and that it offers the lowest operating cost per seat of any widebody airplane in service. The company says the jet uses 25% less fuel per seat than the airplanes it will replace and has more than 95% commonality with the 787-9.

The 787-10 lists for $326 million, according to Reuters.

Singapore Airlines will configure its 787-10s with 337 seats, 36 in business class and 301 in economy, the airline said. It plans to use the jets on flights of up to eight hours.

Singapore’s plans

Singapore Airlines plans to put the 787-10 into scheduled service in May, with flights from Singapore to Osaka, Japan, and Perth, Australia, Boeing said. Before then, the airline will fly the jet on selected flights to Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur to train crews.

The airplane will fly from North Charleston to Singapore by way of Osaka, and the airline will unveil its new regional cabins at an arrival ceremony in Singapore on March 28, Singapore Airlines said.

The jet is the first of 49 787-10s the airline has on firm order, the airline said. Singapore Airlines also has 20 Boeing 777-9s on order. Its low-cost subsidiary, Scoot, already flies the 787-8 and 787-9, so the group is now the first to operate all three Dreamliner models, according to Boeing.

“The 787-10 underscores Singapore Airlines’ longstanding commitment to operate a modern fleet, and marks the start of a new chapter in our shared story with Boeing,” Goh said.

A crowded market

The 787-10 competes with Airbus’ A330neo, an upgraded version of that company’s most-sold widebody, Reuters reported. Both jets are designed for shorter flights than other midsize widebodies, tapping into rapid growth in trade within Asia and across other regions, according to Reuters. After brisk early sales, orders for both models have slowed.

Boeing looked poised to win a contested order from American Airlines over the A330neo, people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.

Boeing says more than 640 Dreamliners have entered service since 2011, flying more than 230 million people on more than 680 routes.