Boeing and the Republic of Ghana announced today that the country intends to re-launch an airline starting with the 787-9 Dreamliner. The parties signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) at the Dubai Air Show for three airplanes with a list price value of $877.5 million according to list prices.

The new national carrier, to be based in Accra, would establish the capital city as a strategic hub that serves cities across West Africa. Future routes would include destinations in Europe, North America and Asia and the long-term plan is to open the airline to private investment and operation.

Since entering service in 2011, the 787 family has enabled the opening of more than 250 new point-to-point routes and saved 45 billion pounds of fuel. Every day, there are more than 1,600 commercial flights on a 787 Dreamliner. This means that somewhere in the world a 787 Dreamliner takes off every minute. To date, more than 400 million passengers have flown on the airplane.