UPDATE | Airbus has revealed its firts choice of A350 seats and cabin interiors on the MSN002 test aircraft – click here for the photos and details!
Photos: first Airbus A350 cabin and seats revealed
PREVIOUS | Airbus will unveil its first A350 cabin and seats tomorrow as the aircraft manufacturer gears up for the late 2014 launch of its next-generation jetliner.
The reveal will take place on Monday April 7th at Airbus' new Customer Definition Centre in Hamburg, where airlines with orders for the A350 will choose the fitout for their planes from tip to tail.
This 'one stop shop' facility, similar to Boeing's 787 Dreamliner Gallery in Seattle, includes 'showrooms' for a wide range of pre-approved seating from economy to first class, galleys, toilets and cabin equipment plus cabin design studios.
Airbus' order book for the A350 currently stands at some 38 airlines and leasing companies with 824 aircraft between them.
Qatar will be the A350's worldwide launch customer, with its first plane due to debut before year's end.
At an international Airbus press conference in June last year, A350 program director Didier Evrard told Australian Business Traveller that "for the first customer (Qatar) the cabin is fully defined, we have modelled everything to a level that has never been achieved before."
However, South America's LATAM Airline Group – comprising Chile's LAN and Brazil's TAM – has already afforded a sneak peak of their common cabin and seating designs for their shared Airbus A350 and Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner fleets to begin flying from 2015.
Arranged in a front-facing 2-2-2 layout, the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787-9 business class seats convert to fully lie-flat beds.
LATAM's designs come from highly-regarded consulting firm Priestmangoode, which most recently crafted TAM's slick Boeing 777 first class cabin.
Read: TAM's slick new Boeing 777 first class is a living room in the sky
The new A350 and 787-9 business class cabins clearly share some of that design DNA, with Priestmangoode saying the palette of natural tones was inspired by South America’s colours and textures.
The new economy seats are, well, pretty much what you'd expect.
Even before these designs took shape, a mock-up of the A350's cabin – dubbed Cabin Zero – made a 'virtual passenger flight' in August last year with 129 passengers and a Cathay Pacific crew.
Read: Airbus A350 makes its first 'virtual flight'
David Flynn is attending the Airbus A350 Cabin Reveal and Customer Definition Centre inauguration in Hamburg as a guest of Airbus.
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David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
12 Jun 2013
Total posts 735
How does the width of the A350 compare to the 787 and 777? It's somewhere in between, right?
Singapore Airlines - KrisFlyer
14 Jan 2014
Total posts 341
The B787 cabin is 5.49m wide. The A350 cabin is 5.61m wide and the B777 is 5.87m wide.
So a 9 abreast seating layout in the A350'is more comfortable than the B787 at 18in.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
19 Aug 2011
Total posts 168
Will this be like the 787, whereby the manufacturer shows 8 abreast, but almost all airlines go 9 abreast, so in reality A350s become 10 abreast?
Hopefully this is too much of a squeeze, making it possibly the twin of choice against a 10 abreast 777X and 9 abreast 787
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
17 Aug 2012
Total posts 2204
It's optimised for 9-abreast, yes; I would expect only low-cost carriers, e.g. AirAsia X or Cebu Pacific, to ram in 10-abreast.
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