Finnair and the A350

It is some months away yet but Finnair is getting excited about the introduction of the Airbus A350.
 
Before long haul A350 operations begin, Finnair will conduct crew familiarisation flights throughout Europe during October.  These regularly scheduled commercial services will be operated as usual within the Finnair network, however with an A350 rather than the usual narrowbody aircraft.

As part of this crew familiarisation, Finnair’s first ever commercial A350 flight will be on 5 October to Rovaniemi in Finnish Lapland, followed in the next two weeks by other European cities including Brussels, Hamburg, London, Stockholm and Vienna.
 
Finnair is the European launch customer, and only the third worldwide, of the completely new aircraft type, which, it says, substantially raises the bar for passenger comfort, environmental performance and operational efficiency.  Shanghai becomes the first proper A350 route, a daily service starting 25 October.  Ticket sales have now opened.  Beijing follows on 21 November.

Finnair has 19 A350 aircraft on order, and expects to receive the first four by the end of this year.  Another seven will be delivered in 2016 and 2017, with the remaining eight by 2023.  Finnair plans to phase out its fuel thirsty A340 aircraft by the end of 2017, leaving the entire wide-body fleet comprised of Airbus A330 and A350 aircraft.

The full list of planned crew familiarisation flights is published  online.

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