Cathay Pacific Takes Delivery of First Airbus A350 XWB

China Aviation Daily

Cathay Pacific has taken delivery of its first Airbus A350 XWB, with an A350-900 touching down at Hong Kong International Airport on Sunday morning after a nonstop flight from Toulouse.
According to flightradar24, the A350-900 airliner, Registration B-LRA performing delivery flight CX3350, departed from Toulouse Airport at 2:16 p.m., Saturday and arrived at Cathay Pacific's home base Hong Kong International Airport at 7:53 a.m. on Sunday (all local time).

The aircraft is due to be formally unveiled to media and staff at Hong Kong Airport on Monday evening.

The Hong Kong-based carrier will start operating its first A350 revenue flight CX907 to Manila on June 1, followed by a daily basis to Manila and Taipei from the next day until the second aircraft arrives in July.

Then the two A350s will only run regional routes for the first three months to Manila, Taipei, Singapore, Ho Chi Minh City and Kansai, prior to commence long-haul operations in September, beginning with Dusseldorf and London.
Besides, Cathay Pacific also plans A350 flights between Hong Kong and Auckland in the second half of the year.

The A350-900s is configured with 214 economy in a 3-3-3 configuration, 28 premium business seats in a 2-4-2 arrangement and 38 business class seats in a 1-2-1 layout.

Cathay Pacific has 22 A350-900s and 26 A350-1000s on order. The airline is due to take delivery of 12 A350-900s this year and ten more in 2017, to be followed by 26 of the larger and longer-range A350-1000s from 2018 through to 2020.