Emirates Airline’s First Airbus A350 Completes Maiden Flight
Emirates Airline’s first Airbus A350-900 finally completed its maiden flight on September 25 after several delays.
The widebody aircraft, still bearing the provisional registration F-WGZA, took off from the manufacturer’s facilities in Toulouse, in the south of France, for a flight lasting nearly 4 hours that reached 41,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean.
At Emirates, the first A350 will be registered A6-EXA and is expected to be delivered in October, after several delays attributed to the supply chain.
The Dubai-based carrier has long been looking forward to receiving the new aircraft and announced in May that the debut would take place on September 15 on a flight to Bahrain.
But the following month, plans changed and the first commercial flight was rescheduled for November 4, to Edinburgh, Scotland.
In August, there was another delay, with the debut now scheduled for December 2, still to the Scottish capital.
65 A350 ordered
Until the beginning of the year, Emirates planned to receive 10 of the 65 A350-900s ordered, but it is currently unknown how many aircraft Airbus will be able to deliver to the United Arab Emirates by December.
For the airline, the A350 will be its first next-generation widebody, as it currently flies only the Boeing 777 and the Airbus A380, aircraft with greater capacity but less efficiency.
The configuration of Emirates’ A350-900 includes a main cabin with 312 seats, 32 in Business Class, 21 in Premium Economy and 259 in Economy.
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