Cathay Pacific Airways (Hong Kong) in February 2016 is due to take delivery of its first new Airbus A350-900 XWB. Airbus has released this update and photo of A350-941 F-WZFX (msn 029 currently under construction at the Toulouse assembly plant:

Assembly of the first A350-900 for Cathay Pacific Airways is progressing well at Airbus’ A350 XWB Final Assembly Line (FAL) in Toulouse, France. Following the fuselage section joining phase, the wings, the horizontal and vertical tailplane as well as tail cone have been joined to the fuselage. Following this, the aircraft will move to the next assembly station for structural completion, ground testing and start of cabin installation.

The aircraft is scheduled for delivery early next year and will be the first of 48 A350 XWBs acquired by Cathay Pacific. Cathay Pacific’s A350 XWB fleet will include 22 A350-900s and 26 of the larger A350-1000s, for operation on long- and medium-haul services.

The A350 XWB has been especially successful in the Asia-Pacific region, where 11 major airlines have ordered a total of 244 aircraft out of the 781 total ordered so far. Cathay Pacific represents one fifth of the A350 XWB total orders from Asia-Pacific.

Photo: Airbus/P. Pigeyre.

Cathay Pacific aircraft slide show: