Cathay Pacific Airways on Tuesday agreed to buy 10 Airbus A350-1000 aircraft, becoming the plane type’s launch customer.
The Hong Kong-based carrier also converted 16 existing orders for A350-900s to the bigger -1000 variant.
Cathay now has a total of 48 Airbus A350s on order. The airline will also lease two additional A350s.
The A350-1000 recently underwent a design modification which will give it 600 nm additional range compared to the original mockups. It will carry 350 passengers in a three class layout up to 8,400 nm, ideal for Cathay’s long-haul ops to Europe and North America.
Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines delivering 97,000 lbs of thrust – the most powerful engines ever developed for an Airbus aircraft — will power the A350-1000.
