Qatar Airways has confirmed it will take delivery of the first Airbus A350 XWB on December 13.
The Gulf carrier is the launch airline for the new aircraft, and has a total of 80 A350s on order.
The delivery will take place at Airbus’ headquarters in Toulouse on Saturday December 13, before entering service on the carrier’s Doha-Frankfurt route in January (see new October 20).
Qatar Airways’ A350 will seat 283 passengers, with 247 in economy and 36 in business class. The airline expects to take delivery of eight A350s before the end of 2015.
The carrier also took delivery of its first Airbus A380 aircraft this year (see news September 17) – for a review of the business class offering on the superjumbo's inaugural flight between Doha and London, click here.
Mark Caswell