The new Airbus A350-900 airliner has embarked from Toulouse for its first demo tour taking it on an 11-day trip around Asia.
The new Airbus A350-900 airliner has embarked from Toulouse for its first demo tour taking it on an 11-day trip around Asia.
The journey will take the Boeing 787 competitor to Seoul (GMP), Tokyo (HND), Hanoi (HAN), Bangkok (BKK) and Kuala Lumpur (KUL) during a period of 11 days, from Monday 17th to Friday 28th November.
This Asian Demo Tour follows the completion of the A350-900 flight test campaign which recently led to the EASA and FAA type certification. After visiting Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia earlier this year during the route proving certification exercise, the A350-900 will now visit more airports and customers in Asia Pacific to demonstrate the aircraft’s superior credentials. The region is one of the fastest growing markets for air transport and represents a third of the 750 A350 XWB orders won to date.
The aircraft (MSN5) is one of Airbus’ fleet of five test A350-900 aircraft and one of two with a fully functional cabin (42 business class and 223 economy class seats). These A350 flights will be operated by Airbus flight crews. This demonstration exercise comes as we near the first airline delivery, to Qatar Airways, by the end of the year.
The widebody A350 XWB offers a 25% reduction in fuel-burn and can seat up to 369 passengers in a typical two-class layout. The A350 has carbon fibre fuselage and wings and sets new standards in terms of passenger experience, operational efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
At the end of October 2014, the A350 XWB had won 750 orders from 39 customers worldwide.
