Turkish Airlines takes delivery of their first two A350-900s

Turkish Airlines has, relatively low-key, taken delivery of their first two A350-900s. TC-LGA, which is c/n 403, departed Toulouse on 22 October at 22:31 and arrived at Istanbul the following morning at 02:24. TC-LGB, which is c/n 421, followed on 23 October and also left Toulouse very late at night, 23:27 to be precise. It arrived on 24 October at 03:15 at Istanbul.

Both aircraft have been ready for quite some time now, but delivery was deferred due to the Corona-pandemic. TC-LGA flew for the first time, as F-WZGN, on 13 March and was ready for delivery after its customer acceptance flight on 11 June. Instead of being delivered it was flown to Tarbes-Lourdes on 2 July for storage. It returned to Toulouse on 25 August for final preparations for delivery.

TC-LGB had its maiden flight, as F-WZGD, on 4 June. It flew again on 17 September after being stored at Toulouse and had its customer acceptance flights on 14 and 19 October.

The two are the first of a total of 25 A350-900s ordered and are planned to be deployed first to Dubai and London-Heathrow. However, due to the current market situation, Turkish Airlines hasn't announced yet when they will start flying the type.

Photo by Clement Alloing