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Airline...scheduled to do 1st commercial flight on Jan 15

Qatar Airways A350 flight delivery on schedule

DOHA, December 12, 2014

The first commercial flight of the Airbus A350-900 would go ahead as scheduled next month despite a delay in delivery of the next-generation plane, Qatar Airways said.

Chief executive Akbar Al Baker said the carrier had a "small issue" that it was trying to resolve with the European plane manufacturer, reported the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

"This issue should be resolved very soon and we will be taking the delivery of our planes imminently," he said.

"The aircraft is already scheduled to do the first commercial flight on January 15 and this will be to Frankfurt," Al Baker added.

"The Airbus 350 will be the backbone of the Qatar Airways fleet," he said.

The A350 had been due to be delivered tomorrow at a ceremony in the southwestern French city of Toulouse.

But on Wednesday the airline postponed the delivery of the first A350-900, which is aimed at eroding Boeing's dominance of the lucrative long-haul market.

The carrier has ordered 80 of the aircraft, whose delivery had already been pushed back about a year.

The aircraft will also be flown to London's Heathrow airport for a week of trials to measure the sound emission "to prove to the world, and especially to the British community, how quiet this airplane is," Baker said.

The delivery of a new aircraft is always an extremely delicate task for manufacturers as buyers' technical teams scrutinise every detail of the cabin, retaining the right to refuse delivery at any moment.

Airlines are in a major push to modernise their fleets to reap the fuel savings that the latest generation of engines offer, especially as competition in the sector is fierce and fuel is one of the biggest costs.

The A350, whose wings and fuselage are made of carbon fibre, will save up to 25 per cent in fuel consumption.

The plane was designed to help the European aerospace giant catch up with its American rival Boeing.

Airbus invested $12-$14 billion in its strategy to position the A350 between Boeing's popular 777 and its 787 Dreamliner, hoping to eat away at both planes' markets. - TradeArabia News Service




Tags: Qatar | airbus | Airways |

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