The A350 XWB embarks on demonstration tour of Asia

MSN5 takes off to South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia


The world’s newest airliner, the Airbus A350-900, just took off from Toulouse for its very first demo tour taking it on an 11-day trip around Asia.
This Asian Demo Tour follows the completion of the A350-900 flight test campaign which recently led to the EASA and FAA type certification. After visiting Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia earlier this year during the route proving certification exercise, the A350-900 will now visit more airports and customers in Asia Pacific to demonstrate the aircraft’s superior credentials. The region is one of the fastest growing markets for air transport and represents a third of the 750 A350 XWB orders won to date.
The journey will take the aircraft to Seoul (GMP), Tokyo (HND), Hanoi (HAN), Bangkok (BKK) and Kuala Lumpur (KUL) during a period of 11 days, from Monday 17th to Friday 28th November.
The aircraft (MSN5) is one of Airbus’ fleet of five test A350-900 aircraft and one of two with a fully functional cabin (42 business class and 223 economy class seats). These A350 flights will be operated by Airbus flight crews. This demonstration exercise comes as we near the first airline delivery, to Qatar Airways, by the end of the year.
The A350 XWB is the latest addition to the market-leading Airbus Widebody product line. Offering its customers a 25% reduction in fuel-burn, the all-new mid-size long-range A350 XWB Family aircraft can seat up to 369 passengers in a typical two-class layout. The A350 has carbon fibre fuselage and wings and sets new standards in terms of passenger experience, operational efficiency and cost-effectiveness. At the end of October 2014, the A350 XWB had won 750 orders from 39 customers worldwide.

Follow the A350 XWB tour live on twitter: @airbus and #A350XWBTour

Paul Bannwarth - TLS