The airline has 13 of the stretched A350 variant on order and has already announced its first destination for the type.
JAL’s first A350-1000
Emerging from paint facilities in Toulouse, Japan Airlines’ very first Airbus A350-1000 was spotted on Friday, March 3rd, in its full livery. While the carrier’s standard color scheme is a rather plain ‘Eurowhite’ and not all that newsworthy, the spotting of the fully-painted jet means it’s one step closer to being delivered to its customer.
The aircraft, according to AIB Family Flights, currently has test registration F-WZFM. It will eventually take on the Japanese registration code of JA01WJ. This A350 has manufacturer serial number (MSN) 610, making it the 610th A350 to be produced by Airbus.
While the aircraft has its livery applied, it still needs to go through a few crucial steps before it can enter service with Japan Airlines. The most important item – or items – are the two big Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97 turbofans to power the jet. Once engines are installed, the aircraft will then need to undergo a series of test flights. For reference, one of the more recent A350-1000s to be delivered, MSN 584, underwent four test flights before heading to Cathay Pacific as B-LXR.
Destined for New York JFK
On February 2nd, Japan Airlines JAL confirmed its Northern Hemisphere winter schedule while also announcing that its first Airbus A350-1000 will be deployed on the route between Tokyo Haneda International Airport (HND) and New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) – flights JL6/JL5. This winter schedule comes into effect on October 29th, 2023.
As we reported at the time, the airline currently deploys its Boeing 777-300ERs on this 13,500 km (8,388 mi) service. While it currently offers a once-daily service to JFK from Haneda, Japan Airlines will increase frequency to twice daily over the summer. Sadly, the A350-1000 won’t be entering service in time for this frequency-boost.
Japan Airlines currently also offers regular service from Tokyo Narita (NRT).
Teasing the public with a brand-new cabin with an ‘unprecedented’ experience, Japan Airlines said in a statement:
“With the introduction of the Airbus A350-1000, we are developing new cabin specifications for international flights to provide a new unprecedented experience for each and every one of our customers.”
Japan Airlines isn’t just replacing the Boeing 777-300ER on its Haneda-JFK route. More broadly speaking, the carrier intends to use the A350-1000 to fully replace the large Boeing twinjet, one-for-one. Indeed, the airline has 13 A350-1000s on order to supersede the 13 777-300ERs it currently operates.
