Finnair has been part of the A350 development team within “Airline Office”.

In this article written by Miika Haatio, Head of Fleet Engineering A350 at Finnair, he explains some details of his work at Toulouse during the development phase of the A350 as member of the “Airline Office”.

“I was stationed in Toulouse for 3 years, and I represented Finnair at Airbus’ airline office together with colleagues representing five other airlines” Haatio said.

“Airbus’ strength is in designing aircraft. We brought in the operators point of view, what the aircraft should be like in terms of airlines expectations in operability and maintainability.”

Source: Airbus

“I really am confident that not only the A350 is an excellent aircraft for us to operate but it also brings the comfort of travel experience for our customers to the next level.”

Source: Airbus

“We are the 1st airline in Europe to fly the A350, and this position isn’t anything new to us. We may be a small airline but we’ve always been courageous enough to look in the future well ahead. “

“It will be an absolute joy and emotional moment when the ribbon gets cut and we’ll fly our first baby home.”

 

“The big day is in just few weeks.  I’m sure receiving the plane in Toulouse will be an emotional moment for me and the company as a whole.”

Based on the article “Designing state of the art aircraft” published in Finnair.blog.com

4 A350s for Malaysia Airlines.

Malaysia Airlines has settled on the Airbus A350 as a cornerstone of its future fleet, signing a lease agreement for 4 of the advanced jets to begin flying from late 2017.

 

The A350-900s will be sourced through Air Lease Corporation, in a deal which also sees the Malaysian flag-carrier holding lease options for 2 more A350-900s as well as 2 A330-900neo aircraft. 

Source: Andrey Sdatchikov

 

 

The delivery timeframe spans from the Q4/2017 to the Q2/2018, and will see the A350s fitted with new business class seats which the airline describes as having "very large dimensions, and will be positioned above the industry standard for business class."

Source: Said Aminov

 

"The A350 is the most technologically advanced aircraft and we are confident that it will deliver exceptional passenger comfort and improve the overall efficiency of our fleet" said Malaysia Airlines’ CEO Christoph Mueller in welcoming the deal.

 

'Efficiency' is a word set to echo through the halls of Malaysia Airlines as Mueller works to re-invent the troubled airline through what hedescribes as "hard reset" program.

 

Based on the article “Malaysia Airlines to fly Airbus A350 from late 2017” published in Australian Business Traveller

 

A350 flyable scale model made in Germany.

A “first-of-its-kind” 1:20 scale model of the A350 XWB joined the skies last June.

This flyable model is the result of a project spurred by an aeronautical mechanic-in-training at Airbus.

In 2011 Christoph Paff heard that fellow Airbus apprentices wanted to build an A350 XWB model, but envisioned something more ambitious than what was being discussed.

Source: Airbus

"We work for a super company so we should try something bigger: like an A350 XWB with a 3.20-metre wingspan and powered by jet engines,” Paff explained.

Source: Airbus

The project planning ran from 2011 to mid-2012, with the A350 XWB scale model subsequently produced during more than 3.000 hours of work.  

Source: Airbus

Paff was the “pilot” for the scale model’s first flight, remotely controlling this representative A350 XWB to manage the engine thrust, along with operation of the rudders, elevators, lights, flaps and other components.  

The scale model also was exposed at Le Bourget airshow as shown in the picture.

Based on the press release “The power of Airbus’ A350 XWB in a flyable scale model”

1st MLG-Door for A350-1000 delivered.

Daher has delivered to Airbus the 1st main landing gear door for the A350-1000, which will be used during the kinematics test program set to be carried out on the landing gear. 

Daher is a French Tier1 for Airbus in the A350 XWB program with headquarter at Tarbes, that additionally to the Design & Build contract for the main landing gear doors (MLGD) it has responsibility for several other Work Packages as parts for the engine environment, elementary parts made of thermoplastic composites and also integrated logistics services.

“This 1st component comes exactly 4 years after the same part for the -900 version and on the exact date of need approved with Airbus over a year ago, which is definitely testimony to our commitment to our customer” said Nicolas Orance, Director of Daher’s Aerospace & Defense Business Unit. 

“The landing gear doors required innovations to optimize their design and manufacture, using the latest equipment for automated fiber placement,” explained Christophe Berger, Industrial Director at Daher.

Based on the press release “Daher delivers its first main landing gear door for the Airbus A350-1000”

A350 MSN3 prototype will never fly again. To Aeroscopia Museum.

A350 MSN3 flying prototype was airborne on 14/Oct/2013 and she participated in the Certification campaign with 218 flights until certification and more than 870 flight hours.

Source: jlroch

Last March/2015 the Trent XWB engines were removed and the aircraft was stored close to the FAL in Toulouse.

Source: dn280tls

This prototype will be transferred to Aeroscopia Museum –in the other side of the Toulouse airport- in coming months and she will be exposed with other Airbus prototypes of A400M, Concorde, A300B and Super Guppy.

Source: A380_TLS_A350

Aeroscopia Museum, developed with Airbus support, is also the starting point of Airbus´ Toulouse production facilities tour.

Source: A380_TLS_A350

Huge loan from European Investment Bank to support Rolls-Royce´s development of A350-1000 engine.

Rolls-Royce will receive a £280 (381€ or $425) million loan to help develop the company's new engines.

Source: Rolls-Royce

The 7-year loan, from the European Investment Bank, is one of the largest ever agreed between the bank and a UK company and will support the development of the higher thrust version of the Trent XWB aero-engine made in Derby.

The European Investment Bank has loaned Rolls-Royce more than £723 (984€) million for investment in the UK in the last decade, as well as supporting research and development by the company elsewhere in Europe.

Source: Airbus

Jonathan Taylor, vice president of the European Investment Bank, said: "The European Investment Bank is committed to supporting long-term investment in research and development across Europe.”

"We are pleased to have helped strengthen manufacturing by Rolls-Royce in Derby over many years.

"Investment to help develop new engines builds on the unique strengths of Rolls-Royce and will help to ensure cutting-edge skills and engineering techniques build better and more efficient engines for the global airline market."

Source: Airbus

The 97,000lb-thrust Trent XWB-97 engine is currently undergoing a rigorous test regime as it prepares for its first flight later this year and subsequent entry into service on the A350 XWB-1000 in 2017.

Based on the article “Huge £280m loan will give thrust to new Rolls-Royce engine” published in DerbyTelegraph

1 additional A350-900 for Air Caraïbes.

Dubreuil Group has ordered 1 additional Airbus A350-900 for Air Caraïbes on lease from Aercap last June/2015.

Source: mrtcnuzn44

Air Caraïbes, which earned a net profit of EUR 17 million in the past financial year, announced on February that they were planning to order 5 A350 XWB.

Finally only 1 additional aircraft will join Air Caraïbes fleet.

Source: A380_TLS_A350

Meanwhile, a project of new low cost long-haul airline, that will be called 'Sunline', is also in preparation for June/2016.

Source: Manuel Belleli

Dubreuil Group announced several strategic initiatives to accelerate the development of its airbusiness.

Air Caraïbes transported 1.228.000 passengers in 2014 (an increase of 0.3% from 2013) with a record turnover of EUR 358 million.

Marc Rochet, Chairman of Executive Board of Air Caraïbes said: "in an extremely competitive environment, Air Caraïbes demonstrated once more, with the involvement of all its staff, the confidence of its customers, to the rigor of its management, its ability to record another year of success. Sustainable growth is the priority of Air Caraïbes and we intend to continue in this direction."

 

Group Dubreuil wants Air Caraïbes to be the 1^st French private airline and an additional A350-900, available in June/2017, has been added to the original order of 2013.

Source: A380_TLS_A350

This early availability schedule indicates that the aircraft could be a flying prototype (probably MSN5) that need to be refurbished in 2016.

The A350 deliveries (3+1 A350-900 and 3 A350-1000) are scheduled between December/2016 and 2024.

The creation of a new subsidiary airline of the group called Sunline was decided and Dubreuil Group will order 1 new Airbus A330-300, (MTOW 242 tons model) in order to start operations in one year.

Sunline will be based on a "new model" of long-haul low-cost carrier and will include wifi and video for its passengers.

Based on the article “Un Airbus A350 et une filiale low cost pour Air Caraïbes” published in Air Journal