Airbus will bring one of its A350 development aircraft to Australia and New Zealand in August during a round-the-world flight as part of the aircraft’s functional and reliability testing program.
The aircraft is scheduled to arrive in Sydney on Monday August 4, and will fly to Auckland the following afternoon.
While in Sydney the aircraft will be demonstrated to media, and presumably to Qantas and Virgin Australia, who are prospective customers for the aircraft. Virgin is evaluating the A350 and 787 for its future widebody long-haul needs, while Qantas has identified the A350-1000, along with the 777X, as a potential 747-400 replacement.
William
says:No, cause last year the CEO said they aren’t committing to new long range aircraft as they have already committed to the Boeing 737 max. And Qantas cancel their order for the 787-8 and delayed their A380s
Red Barron
says:Great news.AA please keep us updated with any timings and flight plans.
Rodney Marinkovic
says:Airbus A350 must to have place under sun hire in Australia, as aircraft who is reference to any development in aviation in next 25 years. Qantas will incising stake to taking big number of this leading brand aircraft.
Craig
says:Some media reports I’ve read are saying August 5th
Darreb Koch
says:Are you able to tell us the times this AC is due into Sydney? I am planning a trip across from Perth to see it.
australianaviation.com.au
says:Darreb, my understanding is it arrives after dark late on the 4th, and flies out to Auckland during the day on the 5th. That’s all I know sory.
Cheers
Andrew
Peter
says:Plenty of pictures please AA during A350 SYD visit for both magazine & AA Express.
Thanks in anticipation
John Harrison
says:Re AB350 visiting Perth WA website http://www.aviationwa.org.au has all the timings.
It would seem 9Aug’14 is arrival date.
Hope this helps.