On January 15th, Qatar Airways began service on the world’s first Airbus A350 route, from Doha to Frankfurt, Germany. I was in Doha last week, for the airline’s press conference and official debut to over 100 international media members. We were not only treated to the press event itself, but also a tour of the city, dinner on a traditional Dhow boat, and the evening ceremony for the plane’s official unveiling.
Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Airways CEO.
At the January 7th press conference, His Excellency Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Airways’ CEO, spoke about the plane and why the airline chose to invest in both the Airbus A350 XWB and Boeing 787 Dreamliner. “Each aircraft has a specific mission it fits best in. We like to be in the forefront of providing the highest standards,” said Al Baker. “Whichever program is introduced to us earlier, we will put [that aircraft] into service. We always keep moving forward in putting the most modern, state of the art aircraft into our fleet.”
Interestingly, Airbus Executive Vice President and Director of Programmes Didier Evrard was sitting to Al Baker’s right side. None of Al Baker’s comments about the plane were particularly glowing toward Airbus or the A350. There was no “We love Airbus” or “This is a beautiful plane!” It was very clear that Qatar holds no loyalty toward a particular manufacturer, and they’ll continue to bring in whichever latest and greatest plane fits their need the best. Evrard, the head of the A350 program during development, spoke briefly. One comment that struck me as interesting was when he said, “The only way to achieve top efficiency is with an all new aircraft.” Of course, he was speaking about the A350, but it also seemed to publicly contradict Airbus’ current operating philosophy of offering a new engine option (NEO) on planes they’re already building, such as the A320 and A330.
As you may remember, it was about 10 years ago when Airbus first introduced the original A350 concept, intended to replace the A330. At that time, Qatar told Airbus they were “flying off course.” The Airbus A330 was being beaten down by Boeing’s 787 in sales, and Airbus came up with the A350 concept to help stop the bleeding. Airbus was focused on getting their A380 to market, finally, so they didn’t put their full effort into the design. One analyst called the first A350 concept “Like putting a patch on a broken leg.” Airbus was forced to go back to the drawing board, and came up with the carbon composite A350 XWB, to compete with the 777 and 787.
After the press conference, media members were assigned groups in which would tour the plane, though once we were on board, we weren’t given a time limit by which we had to finish, so we got to take our time. I was able to check out almost everything pretty thoroughly, except for the flight deck, due to interviews being held up there. We entered through the back of the plane, so the first thing I saw was the aft galley, which was of course massive, in order to serve a plane of that size. Next, I saw the small staircase leading up to the crew rest area, and I was given permission to go up there and check it out.
The A350’s aft galley.
The aft crew rest area.
I made my way through the economy section, and stopped to sit in the seats for a few minutes. The in-flight entertainment screens are HUGE for an economy seat, especially for being so close to your head. The Panasonic systems are built on the Android operating system, and controlled by touch screen, or a small detachable remote that it tethered to the seatback in front of you. I found the seats to be pretty firm, but as someone pointed out, they’ll break in and soften up a bit over time. The leg room seemed average for an economy section. The seat bottoms slide forward as you recline. If the person in front of you reclines, you almost have no choice but to follow suit, because that seatback will be right in your face if you don’t. It’s very tight.
The IFE screen in economy.
Closely spaced rows in economy.
Working my way toward the front, I passed by the nicely-decorated Business Class bar area. Onto the Business Class seats. I flew over to Doha on Qatar’s 777-200, in Business Class. While the service and food were excellent, I found the seats to be a bit uncomfortable when laying flat, because they lay at a slight downward angle at the foot end. The new seats, however are much different. They do lay fully flat like a real bed, at a generous 80 inches, though there is no privacy partition on the aisle side like most other airlines offer for seats such as these. The seats are arranged 1-2-1, and if you’re in one of the mid-cabin seats, there is a privacy barrier that can be raised between you and the person next to you. There are 36 Business Class seats on Qatar’s A350. Each seat has a 17-inch IFE screen Each passenger in Business Class gets a Giorgio Armani amenity kit, along with slippers and pajamas. A pillow, duvet blanket and noise-canceling headphones are also provided.
The bar for business class customers.
A business class seat, showing some of the features.
Thursday’s inaugural flight from Doha departed 30 minutes late (probably due to all of the pre-flight festivities) and still arrived four minutes early, according to FlightAware.
In my opinion, the A350 is a great-looking plane, though not as attractive as the 787 Dreamliner. The one design aspect I like more on the A350 over the Dreamliner is the wing design. On the 787, the wings taper to a point at the end, but on the A350, they also have a sleek upward curve. I’ve now toured both the 787 (twice) and A350, though unfortunately, I haven’t had the opportunity to actually fly on either plane.
Disclosure: My trip to Qatar was covered by Qatar Airways, though all thoughts and opinions about the plane are my own.
PHOTO GALLERY: Qatar Airways’ A350 XWB
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All photos by the author.
Paul Thompson has over 13 years of experience working in the airline industry. He is based in Denver, Colorado. You can follow him on Twitter at @FlyingPhotog or on his personal blog planegeek.com.
