Assembly of the first China Airlines A350 began in Toulouse earlier this year and the first of 14 such aircraft is expected to be delivered in September this year instead of the originally scheduled July date due to backlog at Airbus’s final assembly plant. This will also cause delays in delivery of the subsequent three aircraft that were scheduled to be delivered before the end of this year.
China Airlines’ A350 will be configured with three cabin classes to accommodate 306 passengers. Premium Business will accommodate 32, Premium Economy Class has 31 seats and Economy with Family Couch seating can accommodate 243.
The A350 comes with a brand new cabin service that uses the five senses of sight, sound, smell, touch and taste to recreate a European atmosphere. The airline will develop a new in flight timber toned cabin fragrance. The A350 will bring the average age of the long haul passenger fleet to 3.6 year, better fuel economy via a 17% reduction in fuel consumption saving the airline TWD70 million a year per aircraft. The A350 will also allow China Airlines to fly faster nonstop flights to Amsterdam and Rome, without the need to stopover hence reducing travel time by four hours.
The aircraft will initially be deployed for regional routes including Hong Kong before they are operated from December on long-haul European routes to Amsterdam, Vienna and Rome. The A350 will take passengers on direct flights between Taiwan and Vienna three times a week; four times weekly to Amsterdam and twice weekly to Rome. The Taipei – Frankfurt route will be increased to seven weekly flights in June making it 16 flights a week with at least two direct flights a day.
On 6 March this year, China Airlines participated in National Taiwan University’s campus recruitment event as well as nine university recruitment events throughout Taiwan to recruit 100 trainee pilots for the A350 this year. It was also looking for 100 maintenance engineers and 40 customer service staff.
China Airlines has unveiled a bird-themed logo for its first A350 aircraft in April this year. The Mikado pheasant, a local of Taiwan, will be featured on the livery while the second aircraft will bear the Formosan blue magpie.
Last month, the airline announced that it has collaborated with André Chiang to design in-flight meals using European-inspired food aesthetics for passengers flying European routes on the A350. This is André’s first stint as an airline catering consultant. André was originally from Taiwan. He specialises in southern French cuisine has recently published a book “Octaphilosophy”.
The Airbus A350 in Asia Pacific
As of June 2016, Vietnam Airlines, Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific are currently operating the A350 aircraft in Asia Pacific. Cathay Pacific was the latest Asian airline to take delivery of the A350 (Aircraft registration B-LRA) on 30 May 2016. The Hong Kong based airline introduced new cabin products on its A350 aircraft.
As at end May 2016, Airbus has announced that there are 802 orders by 42 customers of which there are 16 A350-800, 605 A350-900 and 181 A350-1000s. Asia Pacific airlines with orders of the A350 XWBs include –
- AirAsia – 10 A350-900
- Air China – 10 A350-900
- Asiana Airlines – 8 A350-800, 12 A350-900, 10 A350-1000
- Cathay Pacific – 20 A350-900, 26 A350-1000
- China Airlines – 14 A350-900
- China Eastern – 20 A350-900
- Hong Kong Airlines – 15 A350-900
- Japan Airlines – 18 A350-900, 13 A350-1000
- Philippine Airlines – 6 A350-900
- Singapore Airlines – 67 A350-900
- Sri Lankan – 4 A350-900
- Thai – 4 A350-900
- Vietnam Airlines – 10 A350-900
