Air Tahiti Nui's first Boeing 787 Photo: Boeing
A high-level French Polynesian delegation has flown to South Carolina in the US to officially receive the first Boeing 787 of the territory's airline.
The delegation is led by the president Edouard Fritch and includes the vice-president Teva Rohfritsch as well as the president of the territorial assembly Gaston Tong Sang.
The plane will be flown to Papeete where it will officially begin service for Air Tahiti Nui on October 14.
The carrier is in the process of replacing its Airbus 340 aircraft which have been used since the airline's creation.
From South Carolina, Mr Fritch and his delegation will travel to New York to attend the UN decolonisation talks.
His government wants the UN to remove French Polynesia from the list of non-self-governing territories on which the UN put it 2013.
France has refused to engage in the decolonisation process, denouncing the reinscription as a glaring interference.
France's diplomats have walked out of the debating chamber every time French Polynesia has been on the agenda.
However, France accepts New Caledonia's listing and co-operates with the UN which will send observers to Noumea for the territory's independence referendum next month.
