It seems Qatar Airways needs capacity, with the airline swapping five of its upcoming Airbus A350-900 aircraft to the larger A350-1000
Qatar Airways A350-1000 in flight – Image, Airbus
The A350-1000 is 7 meters longer than the A350-900, with space for 44 more seats in an A350-1000. In addition, the plane flies with the QSuite Business Class product.
On the up-sizing, Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker states
“Qatar Airways is delighted to have upgraded five of its previously ordered A350-900 to the more recently launched A350-1000. Since taking delivery of the world’s first A350-1000 in February 2018, we have been extremely pleased with the aircraft’s performance, which has prompted us to update our original order. The A350-1000 has been a welcome addition to our fleet and very well received by our passengers who enjoy the new generation aircraft’s unprecedented levels of comfort and technology.”
Airbus’s Guillaume Faury (President, Commercial Aircraft) is happy with the upsize, stating:
“Since its entry into service, the A350 Family has proven outstanding reliability and efficiency. We are delighted to see launch customer Qatar Airways extend its confidence in the A350-1000“,
Qatar Airways is renowned for its standards of excellence, and we are pleased the A350-1000 delivers to their expectations, being the aircraft of choice to seamlessly increase capacity in unprecedented comfort on its growing long-haul routes.”
Qatar Airways is the largest operator of the Airbus A350 family with 76 aircraft on order, with 30 aircraft in-flight (split between 27 A350-900s and 3 A350-1000s).
As the capacity models change (as well as routes and networks), it seems those extra 44 seats will become more important than ever to Qatar Airways.
Combined with the QSuites and reasonable economy class seating by Recaro, this should be a good combination for those passengers travelling long haul.
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