Qatar Airways will become the first airline to fly the A350 to the US today.
The aircraft departed Doha's Hamad International airport at 0740 local time and is scheduled to land at New York JFK at 1400 local time (1900GMT).
The Gulf carrier currently has seven A350s in its fleet, operating a twice-daily service to Frankfurt, a daily service to Munich, and a thrice-daily service to Singapore.
An eighth A350 will join the Qatar Airways fleet later this month and will be rostered daily to Philadelphia from January 1.
A daily A350 service to Boston will then launch on March 16 (see news, June 1), followed by a second daily flight to New York on April 1 and a daily service to Adelaide on May 2 (see news, October 13).
Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Airways CEO, said: "As the global launch customer of this new-generation aircraft, we are excited to introduce it to the American market, where we will commence commercial flights from January 1 on our route from Philadelphia."
Graham Smith