The current public sources reviewed do not disclose a negotiated 787 unit price. A filed 2026 agreement instead shows distinct advance-payment, basic-price, delivered-price, engine, configuration, equipment, escalation, support, payment, and delivery layers. A used aircraft or lease requires a different condition and contract record.
A catalogue-style answer compresses several decisions into one currency figure. It cannot tell you whether the subject is a new factory position, a serial-numbered used aircraft, an operating lease, a sale-and-leaseback, or an operating budget. It also cannot tell you what the number excludes.
The better starting point is a scope. Identify the exact aircraft, transaction, date, jurisdiction, delivery or redelivery point, and cost layer. Then make every provider label the evidence behind each line. A number is comparable only after the scopes align.
Identify the exact aircraft and transaction
Boeing's current family page identifies the 787-8, 787-9, and 787-10 as separate variants. Its displayed family table also lists GEnx-1B and Trent 1000 engine options. Those labels do not prove the engine installed on a particular aircraft, but they show why “a Dreamliner” is not an exact acquisition subject.
| Scope | What the number may describe | What must stay separate |
|---|---|---|
| New contract | Specified aircraft, configuration, delivery positions, equipment, support, escalation, and payment terms. | Financing cash flow, airline operating cost, and future market value. |
| Used purchase | A serial-numbered asset in a dated condition and transaction. | Another aircraft's asking price, book value, or maintenance position. |
| Lease | Rent and obligations for an identified aircraft, term, utilization, maintenance, and return condition. | Ownership, full operating cost, and an assumed residual value. |
| Operation | A mission-specific airline cost model using actual utilization and operating inputs. | Acquisition price, finance payment, or lease rent treated as the whole cost. |
Why “fixed price” still moves before delivery
Boeing's 2025 Form 10-K says commercial-aircraft sales contracts are typically entered years before delivery. It describes firm fixed-price contracts with indexed price-escalation clauses and says aircraft pricing generally begins with a fixed amount modified by escalation between contract and delivery.
That mechanism makes the contract date, delivery date, price base, index, adjustment language, and later amendments material. “Fixed” does not mean that a public historical figure is a current delivered amount. “Escalated” does not mean that an outsider can reconstruct the confidential agreement from a public index alone.
A current 787 contract reveals the structure
Delta's January 2026 Form 8-K reports a definitive agreement for 30 787-10 aircraft, options for up to 30 more, GEnx engines, and planned deliveries beginning in 2031. It also says Delta obtained long-term financing for a substantial portion of each aircraft's purchase price. Those are dated order, engine, delivery, and financing-scope statements. The filing does not disclose the unit amount or financing terms.
The purchase agreement filed with Delta's first-quarter report is more revealing about structure. It defines advance-payment base price as an estimated aircraft price. It separately identifies aircraft basic price. It defines aircraft price as the total amount paid at delivery, subject to the agreement's adjustments.
The commercial values are replaced by confidential-information markers. That is not an invitation to estimate them. It is direct evidence that the contract can reveal exactly which fields matter while withholding the negotiated amounts.
Delta's fleet total is not a 787 price
Delta's first-quarter 2026 filing reports about USD 28.5 billion in future aircraft purchase commitments across seven listed fleet types and multiple years. The fleet table includes 30 787-10 aircraft. Delta says the timing remains uncertain because of supply-chain, manufacturing, and regulatory constraints.
The aggregate combines aircraft families, delivery years, payment timing, configurations, engines, escalation, and amounts already structured by separate agreements. Dividing it by a total aircraft count does not produce a 787 contract price.