Airbus to embark on A350 world tour
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Airbus will take its brand new A350 aircraft on a world tour, prior to its entry into service later this year.
This three-week mission will see the wide-body jet embark on four separate trips covering 14 destinations on six continents.
The first trip will travel to Canada via the North Pole and Frankfurt, including a visit to Lufthansa, while trip two will see the A350 fly to Asia, with visits to Hong Kong and Singapore. Both Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines have placed large orders for the A350.
The third trip will take the aircraft to Johannesburg and Sydney, then onwards to Auckland, Santiago and Sao Paulo. Finally, the fourth trip will fly to Doha to meet launch customer Qatar Airways, then to Perth. It will then fly back to Doha before continuing to Moscow and Helsinki.
The world tour will be undertaken using the ‘MSN5′ test aircraft, which features a fully functional cabin with 42 business class and 223 economy class seats. Some flights will have passengers onboard.
The A350 is Airbus’ new twin-aisle passenger jet, which is designed to compete with Boeing’s 777 and larger versions of the B787 Dreamliner. It will come in three sizes, the A350-800, -900 and -1000, carrying between 276 and 369 passengers.
Airbus has so far taken orders for more than 700 A350s, with major airline customers including Qatar Airways (80 aircraft), Singapore Airlines (70), Etihad Airways (62), Cathay Pacific (46), United Airlines (35), Japan Airlines (31) and Asiana Airlines (30).
The first A350 is expected to be delivered to Qatar Airways in the fourth quarter of 2014.
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