TAM Airlines took delivery of the Airbus A350 in December, and is the first carrier in the Americas to operate the new-generation aircraft.
For more general information on the A350 XWB, click here.
TAM starts operating the A350 XWB commercially this month between Sao Paulo and Manaus, Brazil, as part of training and crew familiarisation.
This will be followed by operations from Sao Paulo to Miami in March and then to Madrid in April.
LATAM (the group formed by the merger of TAM and Chilean carrier LAN) has ordered a total of 27 A350 XWB aircraft.
The first A350 currently in service features TAM livery.
Towards the middle of the year the first true LATAM A350 will be revealed, with new livery to reflect the unified brand.
TAM is the fourth carrier to operate the A350, joining Finnair, Qatar Airways, and Vietnam Airlines.
The carrier’s aircraft is configured in a two-class layout, with 348 seats, comprising 318 in economy, and 30 in Premium Business Class in a 2-2-2 layout.
Below are images of TAM’s first A350-900 on the Airbus Final Assembly Line in Toulouse, where the wings, the horizontal and vertical tail plane, the main landing gear and the tail cone were joined to the fuselage.
The aircraft emerged from the Toulouse paint shop in September 2015, before having its engines installed and undergoing cabin furnishing and cockpit fitting, and finally ground and flight tests.
Nick Atkins
