Distinguished guests and members of the press disembark an Airbus A350-1000 in Việt Nam on Friday. — Photo Airbus
The new Airbus A350-1000 has arrived in Ha Noi for the first time for a demonstration flight.
The aircraft’s visit to the capital city on Friday was part of a three-week demonstration tour that is bringing the A350-1000 test aircraft across the Asia-Pacific region.
The A350-1000 is Airbus’ latest and largest widebody in the twin-aisle category. The 366-seat aircraft has a catalogue price of approximately US$366 million.
With a seven-metre longer fuselage, the A350-1000 is 40 per cent larger than its smaller sibling the A350-900. It is a truly long-range aircraft with a range of 8,000nm (14,800 km) at entry into service, enabling non-stop service from Ha Noi to Europe or North America.
The A350-1000 features a modified wing trailing-edge, new six-wheel main landing gears and more powerful Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97 engines. Like the A350-900, the A350-1000 brings together the very latest in aerodynamics, design and advanced technologies for a 25 per cent step change in operating cost compared to previous generation competitor aircraft.
According to Airbus, it sees demand rising for twin-aisle aircraft in the next 20 years, of which the A350-1000 is ready to capture a large part.
At the end of December 2017, Airbus have sold 169 A350-1000 aircrafts to 11 customers including Qatar (37), Cathay Pacific (20), Etihad (22), British Airways (18), Japan Airlines (13) and Asian Airlines (10). —VNS