About to complete five years in service, in January 2020, the A350 widebody aircraft was delivered to another customer on Thursday, Scandinavian Airlines (SAS). The new generation jet, an A350-900, is part of an eight-plane order. With the SE-RSA registration, the aircraft is configured with 300 seats, 40 of them in the “SAS Business” business class, 32 in the “SAS Plus” and 228 in the “SAS Go” economy.
The SAS A350 is also the first airline to show off the new livery aircraft in September when the blue tone was highlighted on a silver background. The company’s first jet will begin operations on January 28 on the route between Copenhagen and Chicago.
33 operators
According to Airbus, the A350 had 913 firm orders by the end of October, but the total is already close to 1000 planes after all Emirates Airline announced an agreement with the manufacturer during Dubai Airshow for 50 A350-900.
Until last month, there were 319 jets in operation worldwide, a number that has been expanded thanks to new November deliveries such as that made for Fiji Airways. Today, the new generation widebody is part of the fleet of 33 airlines and has about 328 jets, and has four units in operation by customers not revealed by Airbus.
And the list is expected to grow soon as the A350 has 18 other customers waiting for the first aircraft. Among the most significant orders are Turkish Airlines (25 A350-900), Aeroflot (14 A350-900) and United Airlines, which has a large order of 45 A350-900 jets closed in 2017. However, the airline has no plans to receive them yet.
| Operators | A350-900 | A350-1000 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Air Caraibes | 3 | 3 | |
| Air China | 10 | 10 | |
| Air France | 2 | 2 | |
| Air Mauritius | 2 | 2 | |
| Asiana | 10 | 10 | |
| British Airways | 3 | 3 | |
| Cathay Pacific | 24 | 12 | 36 |
| China Airlines | 14 | 14 | |
| China Eastern Airlines | 6 | 6 | |
| China Southern Airlines | 5 | 5 | |
| Delta Air Lines | 13 | 13 | |
| Ethiopian Airlines | 13 | 13 | |
| Etihad Airways | 4 | 4 | |
| Evelopo Airlines | 1 | 1 | |
| Fiji Airways | 1 | 1 | |
| Finnair | 14 | 14 | |
| French Bee | 3 | 3 | |
| Hainan Airlines | 4 | 4 | |
| Hong Kong Airlines | 6 | 6 | |
| Iberia | 6 | 6 | |
| Japan Airlines | 4 | 4 | |
| Latam Airlines | 8 | 8 | |
| Lufthansa | 15 | 15 | |
| Malaysia Airlines | 6 | 6 | |
| Philippine Airlines | 6 | 6 | |
| Qatar Airways | 38 | 10 | 48 |
| SAS | 1 | 1 | |
| Sichuan Airlines | 4 | 4 | |
| Singapore Airlines | 43 | 43 | |
| South African Airways | 3 | 3 | |
| Thai Airways | 12 | 12 | |
| Vietnam Airlines | 14 | 14 | |
| Virgin Atlantic | 4 | 4 | |
| Undisclosed | 4 | 4 | |
| Total | 295 | 33 | 328 |
