Story ID: GPfinnair12162014
Finnair’s First Airbus A350 Takes Shape
By: Gregory Polek
Caption: Delivery to first European operator scheduled for next fall
Word Count: 158
Airbus has begun joining fuselage sections of the first A350-900 for Finnair at the Roger Béteille Final Assembly Line (FAL) in Toulouse, France, the company announced Tuesday. Production schedules call for delivery to Finnair next autumn, making it the first European airline to fly the A350 and the third operator in the world.

Following completion of the fuselage join, the aircraft will move to wing junction, cabin installation and first power-on, all achieved in a single station. Once the airplane proceeds through those phases, it will undergo system tests, cabin completion, painting and engine installation before starting the delivery process, including flight testing.

Finnair holds a firm order for 19 A350s. It plans to deploy the aircraft on long-haul routes to Asia and the Americas.

Airbus plans to delivery the first A350-900 to Qatar Airways next Monday. The airplane has drawn firm orders for 778 examples from 41 customers.