A RESPONSE TO BOEING 787
Passengers might breathe a bit more easily – so far, none of the other carriers have reported major issues with their A350-900s and A350-1000s.
The Airbus A350 family of widebody aircraft was designed in 2004, as a response to Boeing’s Dreamliner jet, the B787 family. The A350 is now the flagship twin-aisle passenger jet, since Airbus ended production of its superjumbo A380 since 2021.
They were not constructed as direct rivals. Airbus designers and engineers went one better by making a slightly larger plane than the Dreamliner, and one that incorporated state-of-the art components and materials.
The A350 was built to offer airlines a completely new widebody aircraft with better economics than existing ones, including Boeing’s B777-200/300 family of twin-aisle planes that had a stranglehold on the market for two decades.
The A350-1000 planes are a stretched version of the widely popular A350-900. Singapore Airlines is the world’s largest operator of the A350 family, with more than 60 A350-900 jets currently in its fleet, including A350 freighters.
Cathay’s A350-1000s can accommodate 334 passengers and are deployed, as can be expected, to major cities in Europe and North America (Vancouver, New York and Boston).
Interestingly, the A350-1000s are also heavily used for flights to Japan, including Tokyo Narita, Tokyo Haneda and Kansai, underscoring the importance of the Japanese market for the carrier. It is used on the Hong Kong-Singapore route, too.
