British Airways preparing A350 for first long-haul service

G-XWBA will fly to Dubai on September 2nd

British Airways (BA/BAW) is preparing its Airbus A350-1000XWB aircraft for its first long-haul service next month.

G-XWBA, which recently joined the British Airways fleet, is due to fly its first long haul service to Dubai (DXB/OMDB) on the 2nd September 2019 and the airline is busy putting the aircraft through its paces with extensive service trials.

The aircraft has been operating between London Heathrow (LHR/EGLL) and Madrid (MAD/LEMD) for the last few weeks and has already racked up more than 15,000 miles for the airline.

In addition to the flying, the airline has also been simulating long haul flights on the ground and this week 331 volunteers took part in a trial which gave cabin crew, the inflight entertainment and catering teams the chance to deliver and analyse every aspect of the in-flight service and make any tweaks required ahead of carrying customers on long-haul flights from September.

British Airways’ Director of Brand and Customer Experience, Carolina Martinoli, said: “We are delighted to have taken delivery of our first A350 aircraft with our new business class seat, Club Suite.

“Our teams across the business have been working hard to ensure that every aspect of our customers’ experience meets and exceeds their expectations, as we prepare the A350 for long haul flights this September.”

British Airways’ Airbus A350 will operate on selected services to Dubai from September 2, followed by flights to Toronto, Tel Aviv and Bangalore this year and as more of the type join the fleet.