Air India's First Airbus A350-900 Aircraft Performs Maiden Flight: Details Here

The new Airbus A350-900s aircraft is part of Air India's massive order of 250 Airbus aircraft which includes 140 A320neo, 70 A321neo, 6 A350-900 and 34 A350-1000.

Airbus A350-900

Air India is set to get its first Airbus 350-900 aircraft. The new aircraft destined for the Tata-owned airline took its maiden flight from Southern France to get to India. The aircraft took off from Toulouse on August 4th completing a flight of 2 hours and 52 minutes over the Bay of Biscay, La Rochelle, and Bordeaux and returning to Toulouse, as per Simple Flying's report. However, the aircraft with registration F-WZFZ is yet to adorn Air India's livery.

The Airbus aircraft was to be delivered to Aeroflot, however, was passed on to Air India because of the ongoing sanctions. The new aircraft is part of Air India's massive order of 250 Airbus aircraft. It is to be noted that the order includes 140 A320neo, 70 A321neo, 6 A350-900 and 34 A350-1000. 

According to AeroTime, Air India expects six brand new A350-900s to be in service by the end of the year; however, because the aircraft was originally slated for Aeroflot, they will come with the Russian carrier's interior. This will take some time to customize.

Given that the aircraft will have Aeroflot's interior, the configuration will be 28 business class seats, 24 premium economy seats, and the remaining 264 economy class seats. The main reason Air India kept the Russian interior is simply due to scheduling constraints and the Indian carrier's ambition to get these aircraft in the air as soon as possible in order to coincide with its ambitious growth objectives.