1st Etihad A350-1000 arrives at Abu Dhabi

After almost two years of storage at Bordeaux, the first A350-1000 of Etihad arrived at Abu Dhabi. The aircraft in question is F-WXAA (290), which is to become A6-XWB. It also carried the registration F-WZNI during its test-flying phase and was put into storage at Bordeaux on 3 June 2019. It arrived at the airline's home on 22 May 2021.

Etihad has, so far, taken delivery of five A350-1000s but parked them at Bordeaux as the airline was going through an extensive reorganisation and wasn't ready to put the aircraft into service. There were many doubts if the airline would ever use the aircraft but last month the airline announced it would center its future long-haul fleet around the A350-1000 and the B787-9 and -10.

Originally, Etihad ordered 42 A350-900s and twenty A350-1000s but has cancelled the -900s during its restructuring process.

Photo by FrenchPainter.