The A350 has to be hands down my favourite looking aircraft right now, especially the -1000 variant. Here In Australia, quite a few carriers actually operate the A350 on services but at this point in time, they’re all -900’s. Qatar is one of those airlines and they use the aircraft on the Adelaide service.
The Doha based carrier announced in March that from October, the A350-1000 would be put on the Canberra service but that was pushed back to November in back in August.
Recently Aviation analyst Alex Macheras sat down with Qatar CEO Akbar Al Baker and he gave some interesting news about Australia.
Here’s what Mr Al Baker had to say,
‘We’re going to start A350-1000 XWB flights to the Australian cities of Perth and Adelaide. The aircraft has had a fantastic entry-into-service, and it’s not often I can say that about any new, first-of-its-kind jet. Airbus did a really good job, and we’re still collecting data, but so far, we are very happy”
While there isn’t information at this time as to when exactly these aircraft will swap out but it’s still very exciting news.
Qatar Airways A350-1000 (Image – Airbus/Qatar)
The A350-1000 is quite a step up for passengers, more so though for Business Class. Instead of the 1-2-1 B/E Super Diamond which is currently being used on the -900 aircraft. The -1000 variant of the aircraft features the carriers impressive new Qsuites which feature a siding door.
With this upgrade in aircraft type, this will also mean the removal of the A380 from the Perth service. I think ultimately the A350-1000 would be much better suited for that route and the A380 could go back to a more premium route where First would be utilised more often.
Qatar Airways Qsuites
The Qatar Airways A350-1000’s feature a total of 46 Qsuites which have a pitch of 79” and width of 21.5 where & the Economy cabin consists of 281 seats in a 3-3-3 layout with every seat featuring a pitch of 31” and a overall width of 17.4.”
Unfortunately I haven’t yet experienced a flight on a -1000 but would love to do so. The A350 is such a good looking, quiet and very comfortable aircraft to fly on.
To read Alex’s article with QR CEO Akbar Al Baker, click the link here.