QATAR AIRWAYS’ INAUGURAL COMMERCIAL AIRBUS A350XWB FLIGHT ON COURSE FOR MID JANUARY
(Posted 16th December 2014)
The highly anticipated launch of commercial flights of the latest state of the art wide body aircraft, for which Qatar Airways is the global launch customer, remains on course for mid-January when the aircraft will be deployed on the route from Doha to Frankfurt.
The delivery of the aircraft was unexpectedly pushed last week from the 13th of December to the 22nd of December, and subsequently were a series of celebrations and the showcasing of the aircraft to the global aviation media postponed until the 06th of January, to avoid a scheduling conflict with the upcoming festive season, which sees many media houses and businesses reduce operations to a mere core presence of staff between Christmas’ Eve and a the weekend after New Year.
The airline was tightlipped, as was Airbus, over the reasons for the weeklong delay, more so after the airline’s CEO Akbar Al Baker had only days earlier heaped praise on the aircraft about its quality and economics.
Qatar Airways has an initial order of 80 such aircraft pending for deliveries with Airbus, split between the two available versions A350-900 and A350-1000. First off the delivery line will be the -900 series which will offer passengers 36 seats in business class and 247 seats in economy class, both offering that added space with a seat less abreast than all other airlines plan to configure the cabin. The larger -1000 version will eventually be added to the assembly line at a later date.
Qatar Airways serves the Eastern African airports of Entebbe, Kigali, Nairobi, Kilimanjaro and Dar es Salaam and offers passengers from Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania onward connections into a global network, with in particular flights operated by the airline’s recently acquired Airbus A380 and their growing fleet of B787 Dreamliners proving most popular with travelers. Being global launch customer for the even more advanced Airbus A350 will put Qatar Airways in polo position as bookings are coming in thick and fast to be among the first passengers booked on the flights to Frankfurt.
