Yesterday was the big pomp and circumstance that happened to be the handover of the first Airbus A350-1000 to Qatar Airways.
A350-1000 and A350-900 Qatar formation flight – Image, Airbus
Whilst yours truly was trapped behind a keyboard a few hundred miles away, there was one big bit of news that dropped – and that the first Qatar Airways A350-1000 will be entering service on Saturday 24th February, flying the QR15/QR16 pair between Hamad International Airport, Doha to London Heathrow Terminal 4.
This flight pair was originally rostered for a Qatar Airways A350-900 (and is showing as such in the timetable at the time of publishing).
The new Airbus A350-1000 will feature the new QSuite Business Class product, and the refreshed Economy Class seats by Recaro.
The plane will have 327 seat – 44 more than the current A350-900 used.
This isn’t the end – with 37 Airbus A350-1000s in the pipeline (and possibly more if Qatar Airways converts some of the held orders of A350-900s), with the airline targeting US East Coast and Australasia as destinations it would like to serve with its new plane.
As more Airbus A350-1000 aircraft come on-stream, I suspect we’ll find out what destinations the airline chooses to send its larger aircraft.
None the less, it’s impressive that Qatar Airways will be turning around a new plane 4 days after it being delivered and pushing it straight into service.
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