Ethiopian Airlines A350-1000 Joins Fleet
Intro
The continent of Africa seems miles ahead of most other continents when it comes to revolutionary planes, as we now see carriers operating the A330-800, A330-900, and the A350-1000. Well, Ethiopian Airlines has now become the first African carrier to take delivery of the longest A350 variant, the A350-1000.
The Details
Ethiopian Airlines currently has four A350-1000s on order, and the first one has just joined their fleet. Originally, Ethiopian had placed these orders for the small variant (-900) but later switched them out to the -1000 for increased capacity.
The flagship aircraft, the 777-9, has just arrived in Addis Ababa as tail number ET-BAW after a 6-hour and 27-minute flight from Toulouse.
Side note: it is interesting to see how some airlines gain access to Libyan airspace while others do not.
As of now, we have no idea where this jet will fly. However, if I had to take a guess, I would assume that Ethiopian will decide to deploy the A350-1000 to London due to the single jet being able to operate a roundtrip. Once a second jet has been delivered, I would expect to see the -1000 operate Dulles.
The Cabins
Ethiopian Airlines has 3 main business class products and a vastly similar economy product across its jets (review coming soon). However, on a small sub fleet of their existing A350-900, Ethiopian offers a beautiful looking 1-2-1 product, which they have chosen to install on this A350 variant. Specifically, these are Safran Optima seats.
The A350-1000 is a large jet, meaning that there will be 46 business class seats (the most out of the fleet for an aircraft) and 349 economy seats.
Economy looks vastly similar to the 777-200LR I recently flew. The only difference is that the cabins are much fresher in a 3-3-3 configuration.
Final Thoughts
Honestly, I am quite excited about this new development from Ethiopian Airlines, as they have truly gone leaps and bounds to grow as an airline and a connecting hub in Africa. With Ethiopian taking delivery of the very first A350-1000 in Africa, this will represent a terrific experience for passengers onboard. Expect to see the jet fly a daily rotation to London if I had to guess, but who really knows😅.
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