The advanced Boeing 787 Dreamliner touched down at New Delhi airport with a warm traditional welcome on Saturday evening after flying 15 hours from Boeing's Charleston factory in South Carolina, US.
The plane, painted in the custom red and yellow livery Air India, is the first of the 27 planes ordered by the airliner and marked an end to India's four-long-year wait to add the next generation planes to its charter.
The plane, which landed at Indira Gandhi Airport, was given a water salute and then taxied next to the Boeing 777 after a traditional puja.
According to Press Trust of India (PTI), Air India is expected to get two more planes this week. The national carrier ordered 27 of the advanced planes in 2005, but due to various problems such as labour troubles and finalisation of the agreement the delivery of the planes got delayed.
With the landing of Boeing 787 to the country Air India has become the fourth global airline to introduce the world's newest passenger plane.
The Fuel-efficient Dreamliner aircraft can carry as many as 250 passengers over a maximum distance of 15,200 kilometres. It packs sophisticated technologies like mood-lighting inside the cabin and large LCD display screens for in-flight entertainment.
"It was a very smooth flight. It has a very (quiet) cabin and there is much less fatigue (for the pilot). It is both a pilot and passenger friendly airplane," Captain A.S. Soman, the commander of the aircraft, said to PTI.
The Economic Times reported that the Dreamliner would initially take domestic routes for two months in order to put the trained crew to practice more landings and takes off.
