Air India's first widebody A350-900 aircraft lands in the national capital
Air India's first wide-body A350-900 aircraft, sporting a new brand livery, has arrived here from European airline Airbus' facility at Toulouse in France.
The aircraft, registered as VT-JRA, landed at the national capital's Indira Gandhi International Airport at 1.46 pm, making the Tata Group-owned airline the first aircraft operator in India to have this type of aircraft in its fleet, said a statement.
The delivery flight will be operated using a special call sign AI350, the report said.
The aircraft is the first of Air India's 20 Airbus A350-900s on order, with five more scheduled for delivery until March 2024, the airline said.
As part of its now renewed order of 250 aircraft from Airbus, Air India will acquire 40 A350s, comprising 20 A350-900 and A350-1000 aircraft, along with 140 A321neo narrow-body aircraft and 70 A320neo aircraft.
The arrival of the first Airbus A350-900 is in many ways “a statement of the resurgence of Indian aviation on the world stage,” said Campbell Wilson, CEO and Managing Director of Air India.
“A symbol of the new era of aviation, the A350 promises a world-class long-haul travel experience on our non-stop routes. The excellent flight economics and technology underline our commitment to commercially successful operations and achieving our sustainability goals,” Wilson added.
The airline has already announced that this aircraft will initially be used on short-haul routes and will later be used for long-haul flights.
The new aircraft will enter commercial service in January next year and initially operate domestically for crew familiarization, followed by longer-haul flights to destinations across continents, the airline said.
It was also said that the A350's commercial operations schedule will be announced in the coming weeks.
The 316-seat A350-900 aircraft comes in a three-class cabin configuration with 28 private business class suites with full-flat beds, 24 premium economy seats with extra legroom and 264 spacious economy class seats, Air India said.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
First print: December 23, 2023 | 6:51 PM IST