Featured Map for 19 November 2015:
Airbus A350 Routes

As of this writing, ten Airbus A350 aircraft are in service, all A350-941 models equipped with Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-84 engines:

• Qatar Airways: 6 aircraft (5 routes, 2,616-nm average stage length)
• Vietnam Airlines: 3 aircraft (4 routes, 3,456-nm average stage length)
• Finnair: 1 aircraft (5 routes, 887-nm average stage length)

Curiously, both Qatar Airways and Vietnam Airlines also operate the Boeing 787-8, which has about 30 fewer seats, though Finnair does not (and has none on order).

Since Qatar Airways operated the first revenue A350 flight, QR 67 from Doha to Frankfurt on 15 January 2015, the A350 has spread its wings to to 14 routes. Qatar Airways and Finnair each operate their A350s on five routes, all from their respective hubs at Doha and Helsinki. Vietnam Airlines operates the A350 on four routes from their hubs at Hanoi and Saigon. In addition to flights from each hub to Paris and flights between the hubs, there is a trip from Hanoi to Seoul.

Vietnam Airlines operates the longest A350 flight by far, the 5,462-nm SGN-CDG trip, though that is only 70% of the advertised 7,790-nm range for the A350-900. Qatar Airways operates the shortest flight, just 204-nm to Dubai.

Over the past few weeks, Finnair's solo A350 has averaged about four flights per day, thanks to a short average stage length of 887 nm. Qatar Airways and Vietnam Airlines have averaged about two flights per day per aircraft, with average stage lengths of 2,616 nm and 3,456 nm, respectively. (A number of the routes are operated at less-than-daily frequencies so the average stage length varies considerably depending upon the timeframe of the sample.)

So far, Frankfurt is the only airport which sees A350s from multiple airlines—both Qatar Airways and Finnair.

Today's Featured Map shows all of these routes, with colors matched to the airline.

References and additional information:

• Airbus
  • A350 XWB
  • A350-900: Dimensions & Key Data
• Airbus A350 Production List – Planespotters.net
• Qatar Airways
  • The A350 XWB | Qatar Airways
• Vietnam Airlines
• Finnair
• Flying On The Qatar Airways A350 On The First Commercial Service, As Newest Airbus Debuts – International Business Times (15 January 2015)
• A350 update: Qatar Airways only operator, but Vietnam Airlines, Finnair and Cathay firm up plans – CAPA—Centre for Aviation
• Vietnam Airlines has started deploying the Airbus A350-900 aircraft internationally – Flightglobal