Philippine Airlines (PAL) and Airbus have finalized a purchase agreement for the firm order of nine A350-1000 aircraft, at the 2023 Paris Air Show held at La Brouget, France this week.
The A350-1000 will fly on non-stop services from Manila to North America, including to the East Coast of the US and Canada. The new aircraft, able to accommodate 380 passengers in a three-class layout, will join two A350-900s already in service at the airline. Expected time frame for the first delivery was not mentioned.
Captain Stanley K. Ng, president and chief operating officer of Philippine Airlines, said the order will see PAL operating one of the youngest and most modern widebody fleets in Asia.
“We selected the A350-1000 to give PAL the power to match capacity closely to predicted demand on both the very longest routes to the North American East Coast but also on our prime trunk routes to the West Coast and potentially to Europe as well. At the same time the aircraft will use significantly less fuel than older aircraft of a similar size, which also brings an important reduction in carbon emissions.”
Airbus claims the A350 offers the longest range capability of any commercial airliner in production today and is capable of flying 9,700 nautical miles or 18,000 kilometers non-stop. For cargo, it has a payload of 68 tonnes and a capacity of 44 LD3 containers. So far, only Qatar and Virgin own an A350-1000.