The first A350 bearing Qatar Airways livery has taken a test flight above the home of Airbus in Toulouse.
The carrier has a total of 80 of the aircraft on order, in addition to its current Airbus fleet of A320, A300 Freighter, A319LR, A321, A330 and A340 families.
Qatar Airways also has orders for the A380, and is expecting to take delivery of its first A380 later this year, displaying it at Farnborough Airshow in July (see news, February 17).
The Gulf airline will launch routes to eight new destinations during 2014 — Philadelphia from April 2; Larnaca (Cyprus) from April 29; Sabiha Gokcen Airport (Turkey) from May 22; Edinburgh from May 28; Miami from June 10 and Dallas/Fort Worth from July 1.
Qatar Airways currently has orders worth more than US $50 billion for more than 280 aircraft, including Boeing 787s, 777s, Airbus A350s, A380s and the A320 family of aircraft.
