Japan Airlines A350 Launching January 2024

I just wanted to provide an update for those interested as Japan Airlines has announced the A350 will start flying as of the 24th of January 2024. As we know about the Japanese culture they seem to be quite punctual and it seems this time they wouldn't release a confirmed date unless it was confirmed.

The frequency will be every other day on JL5 and JL6 until the second A350-1000 is delivered in March 2024. I would have loved to see JAL launch this product so it could be every day but what do you do?

The Plane

As we know the A350 First Class seats are over the top featuring 3 seats per row. While the Business class has 54 suites, premium economy with 24 seats, and economy with 155.

We can conclude that these aircraft will operate primarily high business-oriented routes hence JFK first and then DFW. The option for SFO seems more leisurely than DFW so it seems like these two routes make sense. I would assume next up is London, Paris, and Bangkok.

The Seat

A couple of thoughts about the seating.

First Class and Business Class have speakers on the headrest (just like my favorite car, the Escalade). While it might work in a private car how is this going to work on a plane? I understand this has been tested but I just can't wrap my head around it. Wouldn't it be cool if you could hear the engines firing up rolling down 31L taking off to Tokyo? I hope they put this feature in!

Premium economy looks like a really solid product especially with JAL premium economy already being very good.

It looks private but not private which is perfect if traveling with a partner 😅. A leg rest and an extension seem like there are multiple ways to play around with the seat.

At this rate, I might have to take two roundtrips to try out all 4 classes as they look spectacular.

Conclusion

This looks like a terrific plane to fly on and expect the first flight to be January 24th, 2024.