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In an article posted just recently about the new British Airways Airbus A350-1000, we examined what it would be like to fly on this new high-tech plane to a variety of exotic destinations. But fantasies no more, as luck would have it, it’s just been announced that the two A350-1000 currently in service for Qatar Airways will now be flying from Doha to New York twice a day!

The Airbus A350-1000 only went into service this year and so far, only Qatar Airways and Cathay Pacific have had their hands on it (Three total delivered in the world). Qatar Airways has been using their two in their aircraft fleet to fly between London/Frankfurt to Doha. They currently have on order an additional 35 of these planes so we can presume that the new New York route will use one of the new aircraft once the delivery takes place.

Qatar Airways currently runs a route from Doha to New York twice a day using an older Airbus A350-900 and a Boeing 777, which is rather odd, as aviation fans would know, that they have very different business class seats (it is particular to have different service offerings on the same route), the Boeing 777 has Qsuites whilst the A350 does not.

What is it like to fly on the Qatar A350-1000

Before we dive into the onboard experience, we should explain what the meaning is for us to add the -1000 to the end of A350. For you see, each new edition of this plane is a sequential higher dash number, -900 is the current model and the new improved much bigger -1000 being the new kid on the block. Compared to the Airbus A350-900, the new plane can carry 40 more passengers and a slighter bigger range of 15,000 km (8,400 nm).

More than 70 percent of the A350-1000’s lightweight airframe is made from advanced materials combining composites, meaning its far lighter and burns less fuel.

The new A350-1000 Qatar Airlines plane design has a slightly lower seating capacity compared to the Boeing 777 (327 to 354 seats) but a higher ratio of business class availability, which we have seen with the Middle Eastern airlines to be very popular. As mentioned previously, this won’t be the Qsuites but the normal Qatar business class (which is a shame as Qsuites has won many industry awards).

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The new A350-1000 also has an exciting new safety feature:

“It features an automatic emergency descent function to around 10,000 ft (3,000 m) and notifies air traffic control if the crew fails to respond to an alert, indicating possible incapacitation from depressurisation.”

When this new craft is introduced, it will first replace the B777 before the 2nd -1000 jet will replace the older A350-900. These two planes will be moved to run different routes. It has not yet been announced where this will be.

The new service to New York will operate on the following frequency:

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New York to Doha departing 10:00PM arriving 5:40PM (+1 day)

Doha to New York departing 8:00AM arriving 3:25PM

And we for one, can’t wait to fly on it.