Turkish Airlines has taken delivery of its first Airbus A350-900.
After months of delays, Turkish Airlines has finally taken delivery of its first A350-900 from Airbus. The aircraft, registered TC-LGA, touched down in Istanbul at around 02:30 yesterday morning. It’s the first of up to 30 A350s expected to arrive at the carrier and will be deployed on high traffic routes such as London and Dubai.
According to AIB Family, the first customer acceptance flight took place on June 11th. After that, it was sent off to Tarbes–Lourdes–Pyrénées Airport (LDE), where it was stored for two and a half months. After returning to Toulouse on August 25th, a couple of further flights took place, including a second customer flight on October 12th.
Sadly, the arrival was with little fanfare, not just because it was the wee small hours of the morning. Due to COVID restrictions, the airline decided not to hold any ceremony in either Toulouse or Istanbul.
The first two A350s will be deployed on two of the most lucrative routes in the Turkish network – London and Dubai.Next to launch will be Los Angeles, another key route for the airline. And finally, the fourth route already announced will be from Istanbul to Seoul.
However, it should be noted that all these route announcements were made long before COVID, so there could be some changes to these plans.
In total, Turkish Airlines has 25 Airbus A350s on order, with options for five more.
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