Inside Air NZ's new 787 flight simulator

Herald video journalist Phil Davis and Business Herald reporter Daniel Lynch take a tour of Air New Zealand's new Boeing 787 flight simulator.

At north of $10 million, Air New Zealand's new 787 flight simulator could be the county's most expensive video game.

But with the delivery of the airline's first Boeing 787-9 just a few short months away, getting a tour of the state of the art simulator comes second to the training of the 200 or so Air New Zealand pilots who will eventually be certified to fly the stretched version of the 787-8 Dreamliner.

Air NZ chief flight operations officer Captain David Morgan gave the Business Herald a rare look inside the 787 simulator.

Morgan says Air NZ will be the first airline to get the 787-9 Dreamliner and its first commercial route will be from Auckland to Perth from October 15.

An additional two 787-9's from Air NZ's order of 10 are scheduled for delivery later this year and will be used to fly the Auckland to Shanghai and Auckland to Tokyo routes.

The airline has already ruled out using its Dreamliners on ultra-long-haul direct flights to the middle of the United States or India.

In February, Air NZ announced a record interim financial result for the first half of the 2014 financial year, with a $140 million after tax profit - a 40 per cent jump on the same period the year before.