Cathay Pacific Airways has become the sixth airline in the world to operate the Airbus A350-900XWB. The first aircraft was delivered directly to its base, located in Hong Kong.
Cathay Pacific has configured its A350-900 with a three-class layout, resulting in 280 seats, comprising 38 fully reclining seats in Business Class, 28 in Economy and 214 in Economy. In all, Cathay Pacific has 48 orders for the A350XWB, including 22 A350-900s and 26 A350-1000s, the version with the highest enger capacity.
Cathay states that the first flights of the A350XWB in its fleet will be for testing and therefore will only cover short-haul routes. However, the company's planning is to introduce the aircraft on long-haul flights in 2016.
To date, Airbus has ed a total of 798 firm orders for the A350 XWB from 42 customers around the world, which already sets the A350 among the most successful twin-engine aircraft in the aviation market.
