Air India has shared some images of its new Airbus A350-900 aircraft on social media.
The aircraft (which at the moment carries test registration F-WZHH) was shown at the paint shop within Airbus’ facilities in Toulouse, France, sporting already Air India’s brand-new livery, which was presented in August 2023.
This is going to be the first A350 operated by an Indian airline. Its delivery is expected to take place before the end of the year.
The Indian flag carrier has currently 40 A350 aircraft on order (34 A350–1000s and six of the smaller -900 version). These are, in turn, part of a 540 aircraft mega-order placed earlier in 2023 with the European manufacturer and includes also 140 A320neo and 70 A321neo single-aisle planes. Air India placed also another order with Boeing for 290 aircraft.
In order to accelerate the delivery of the first batch of A350 aircraft, Air India is getting some of the airframes that were originally built for Aeroflot and, for the time being, they will retain the cabin interiors that had already been fitted for the Russian airline.