Substantial loss for A350 first produced aircraft, as usual.

There is no official information regarding the production costs for A350 but the initially produced aircraft will be delivered at a substantial loss, as it usual for this kind of project.

Source: airplanepicturesbrasil

Differently to Boeing these losses will be counted directly in this year’s Airbus and Airbus Group profit and loss.

Source: Alexander Mikula

While there was a $434m loss provision charged to the bottom line for 2013 results, there were no charges for 2014 and none announced coming up for this year’s results.

Airbus has launched a Recurrent Cost recovery plan as mentioned in corporate presentations.

Based on the article “Bjorn’s Corner: Boeing’s 787 and Airbus’ 350 programs, a snapshot” published in Leeham News.

Cathay studying Hong Kong–Tel Aviv route with A350.

The Hong Kong company has already announced its intention to open new destinations with its A350-900 that will start receiving in February/2016.

Tel Aviv could be one of them, according to the Israeli daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, which reports that Cathay Pacific has the idea to open a route between Hong Kong and Tel Aviv by mid-2016 with the Airbus A350.

The journal said that Cathay representatives visited Israel to know the procedures that would enablethem to operate.

Visits and contacts have been done with the Civil Aviation Administration, with the Airports-operator in Israel and with the authority in charge of security on Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport.

Source: Manuel Belleli

If this route finally is confirmed, Cathay Pacific would provide direct competition to Israeli EL ALairline currently offering a direct flight between Tel Aviv and Hong Kong.

Cathay Pacific, a member of the Oneworld Alliance, has ordered 22 A350 - 900, which will replace its 10  A340-300 and its 5 Boeing 777-200. Additional 26 A350-1000 complete the orderbook.

Based on the article “Cathay Pacific envisage de lancer Tel Aviv en Airbus A350-900 XWB” published in Air Info.

Medium bird-strike test to be done in coming weeks to the A350-1000´s new XWB-97 engine.

“In terms of clearing the XWB-97 for flight, the icing work is complete and the first phase of type testing has been done.

We have to do the medium bird-strike test, and we will be doing that over the next few weeks,” saidSimon Burr,  Rolls-Royce’s COO for Civil Large Engines.

Source: Rolls Royce

The first flight-test engine is “very close to production standard, in fact much closer than the first -84 was. The only differences are just in terms of the external dressing and various small design changes,” he added, referring to aspects such as the configuration of the systems and wiring harnessing, which is “as close as possible to the final standard.”

Source: Rolls Royce

“When we built the first engines we used a different harness technology to experiment with it, but here we have aligned it so it will feel the same to a mechanic servicing either the -84 or the -97,” saidBurr.

The 2 engines already share 80% of the same line replaceable units, but Rolls is refining the configuration to increase the “feel” of commonality.

“It’s about things like where things will be positioned.

We’ve done a lot of design changes to align it to the first A350-900 in service in terms of the -84 engine,” he added. 

Based on the article “Rolls-Royce Building First XWB-97 For Flight Tests” published in Aviation Week.

Taiwan-supplier for A350 engine parts builds a new facility.

Taiwan´s Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC) is investing $41.5 million to construct a third factory, dedicated to engine casting work.

The facility, which will focus on work for the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB, could in the future also work on CFM International´s Leap engine, said AIDC.

The new Kaohsiung factory is expected to be completed by the end of the year and scheduled to be operational in the 2^nd quarter of 2016.

Based on the article “AIDC to build on Trent XWB success” published in Flightglobal.

Al Baker: “Airbus should consider an A350-1100”

Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker said Airbus should consider a larger variant of its new A350 wide-body and upgrade its A380 superjumbo with new engines to make the jets more appealing.

Source: Lindner Fotografie

The mid-sized A350-900 recently added to Qatar’s fleet represents the latest in civil aviation technology, while the Boeing 777X-9 will probably form the backbone of fleets of many major airlines once it’s introduced at the end of the decade, Al Baker said at a conference in Dubai.

Source: Airbus

Airbus should consider an A350 type larger than the -1000 stretch version to retaliate, he said.

Source: Manuel Belleli

Airbus’s largest aircraft have struggled to sustain their order momentum, with the A380 in particular failing to win fresh deals in recent years.

Al Baker said the A380 would be a “killer” with a 10-15% lower fuel burn, an advantage Airbus might achieve with new engines, and that he wouldn’t buy more of the planes in its current form.

“This plane has a very big potential but Airbus have to put their hands in their pocket and take this aircraft a step higher,” Al Baker said, declining to give a number of potential follow-up orders should Airbus opt for a neo option.

Based on the article “Qatar Urges Airbus to Upgrade Wide-Bodies to Hold off Boeing” published inBloomberg

New training Center in Singapore with four A350 full flight simulators.

Construction of the new Airbus Asia Training Centre (AATC) in Singapore is now underway, following the completion of initial ground-breaking works.

Source: Airbus

Due to open in the first quarter of 2016, the new facility will offer type rating and recurrent training courses for all in-production Airbus types.

The 9.250 m2 state-of-the-art facility, located at Seletar Aerospace Park, will be the 4th Airbus flight training centre in its global network, joining those in Toulouse, Miami and Beijing.

When fully operational, the Singapore centre will feature eight full flight simulators, including four A350 XWBs, one A380, one A330 and two A320s.

Source: Airbus

"AATC is a true win-win partnership for Singapore Airlines and Airbus," said Singapore Airlines' Senior Vice President Flight Operations, Captain Gerard Yeap.

Based on the press release “Construction of new Airbus Asia Training Centre underway”

TAMs first A350 final assembly progress towards delivery in 2015.

The first A350-900 for TAM Airlines is progressing well in the Final Assembly Line (FAL) in Toulouse, with joining of the wings, the horizontal and vertical tail plane, the main landing gear and the tail cone to the fuselage.

TAM will be the first airline in the Americas to fly the A350 XWB and the 4th operator in the world overall.

Delivery of TAM’s first A350 XWB is scheduled for the end of this year.

TAM has a total of 27 A350 XWB on order.

All pictures. Source:Airbus

Based on the press release “TAM’s first A350 XWB takes shape”