First Delivery of the Airbus A350 XWB
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UPDATE Dec 12, 2014: Delivery of the Airbus A350 XWB to Qatar Airways has been rescheduled for December 22.
It’s always exciting when a new aircraft is delivered to an airline, and an even bigger event when it’s the first plane of a new design. That’ll next happen on December 13th, as Airbus and Qatar Airways get ready to celebrate the delivery of the very first Airbus A350 XWB.
Qatar Airways Group chief executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al-Baker, says, “The delivery of our first A350 XWB aircraft, as global launch customer, is a highly anticipated event in the relatively young history of Qatar Airways.”
This aircraft, the first of 80 A350 XWBs to be graced with Qatar Airways Arabian Oryx livery, will fly from Airbus’ factory in Toulouse, France on Saturday. The airline will introduce the A350 XWB at a big celebratory event on Monday, at its base in Doha, Qatar. The new plane’s first revenue flight is planned for mid-January, from Doha to Frankfurt, Germany. This 2,900 mile flight is just a short hop for the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-powered A350-900, which has a range of 7,750 miles.
Airbus has over 775 orders for the A350 XWB-series from 41 airlines. The aircraft features the latest in aerodynamic and design technologies, and passengers will experience new interior lighting, panoramic windows, and spacious overhead storage. As well, the A350’s state-of-the-art in-flight entertainment (IFE) system has been designed around a flat-floor wiring model, eliminating the plastic bumps that cover IFE cables in other aircraft.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlQ8O0feWuU
“Qatar Airways is committed to offering our passengers the very best five-star experience when it comes to travelling, not only in terms of the custom-built comfort features across all of our cabins and the service on board, but with the investment and expansion of our modern fleet,” says Al-Baker. The Qatar A350-900s will seat 36 Business Class passengers and 247 in economy class, for a total of 283 seats.