Airbus A350

The A350 is one of the easiest airliners to name from the ground, thanks to a face that looks as though it is wearing sunglasses [4]. It is a long-haul twin built largely from composites [1], and it now flies scheduled services into Dublin [6] [7].

A plastic plane, mostly

More than 70% of the A350's airframe is made from advanced materials, and 53% of it is composite [1]. The wing is designed to change shape in flight: Airbus says it continuously adjusts the wing profile to suit the moment [1]. Both versions share a 64.75 m wingspan and a fuselage 5.96 m wide, and both stand about 17 m tall: 17.05 m for the -900 and 17.08 m for the -1000 [1]. The -900 has a maximum take-off weight of 283 tonnes and the heavier -1000 of 319 tonnes [1].

Every A350 is powered by Rolls-Royce. The A350-900 uses the Trent XWB-84, rated at 84,000 lb of take-off thrust, and the A350-1000 uses the Trent XWB-97, rated at 97,000 lb [1] [2]. There is no second engine maker to choose from.

From first flight to Dublin

The first A350-900, registered F-WXWB, took off from Toulouse-Blagnac at 12:05 UTC on 14 June 2013 for a test flight around south-west France [3]. EASA certified the A350-941 on 30 September 2014 [2]. It was the first airliner approved for flights more than 180 minutes from a diversion airport before it had entered service, with approval for up to 370 minutes [3].

Qatar Airways, the launch customer, put the A350 into service on 15 January 2015 [1] [3].

The stretched A350-1000 followed. It first flew on 24 November 2016, was certified on 21 November 2017, and entered service on 24 February 2018 [1] [2]. At 73.78 m it is seven metres longer than the -900's 66.80 m [1]. In a typical three-class layout the -900 seats 300 to 350 and the -1000 seats 350 to 410 [1].

There is also an ultra-long-range version of the -900 with a range of 9,700 nautical miles (18,000 km), which entered service on 11 October 2018 [1]. The standard -900 is quoted at 8,300 nautical miles and the -1000 at 8,700 [1].

By the end of December 2023 Airbus had taken 1,206 orders for the A350 family, 50 of them for a freighter version, from 58 customers, and had delivered 585 aircraft to 40 operators [1]. By the end of August 2026 the totals had reached 1,624 orders and 734 deliveries [9].

On an ADS-B receiver the A350-900 shows as A359 and the A350-1000 as A35K.

How to spot one

• The mask. Black paint around the flight deck windows makes them look like a single wraparound window [4]. From a distance it gives the nose a bandit's mask.
• The wingtips. Instead of an upright winglet, the tip of the wing sweeps up and back in a smooth curve [4].
• Two engines, one stretch. A long twin with that mask is an A350 or an A330neo. The A330neo copied both the mask and the curved wingtip, so it is the most likely mix-up [4]. Its engines look large in diameter and short [4]. When in doubt, the type code settles it: A359 or A35K against A339.
• Which A350? The -1000 is the longer of the two by seven metres [1], and it has a larger main landing gear than the -900 [4].
• Boeing twins. Against a Boeing 787 or a Boeing 777, look for the dark mask around the cockpit windows first [4].

Over Ireland

The first A350 to touch down in Ireland landed at Dublin Airport on 8 July 2015, flown in from Toulouse to mark the creation of 100 jobs at the aircraft leasing company AerCap [8].

Scheduled A350 flights came later. Etihad Airways brought its A350-1000 to Dublin on the Abu Dhabi route from 26 March 2023, flying it four times a week as flight EY45 and alternating with Boeing 787s on the other days [6]. Its 371 seats split into 44 business studios and 327 economy seats, the economy cabin laid out nine abreast in a 3-3-3 arrangement [5] [6]. The report of the first service described the A350 as 25% more fuel efficient than earlier twin-aisle aircraft [6]. Dublin Airport said that was almost a third more passengers than the 787-9 that had served the route before [5].

On 20 July 2026 China Eastern began flying non-stop between Dublin and Shanghai three times a week with the A350-900 [7]. Dublin Airport describes it as its longest-ever scheduled non-stop service [7]. The first inbound flight, MU231, landed shortly after 07:30, and the first return, MU232, left at around 11:30 [7].

From the archive

Airbus puts the A350’s composite content at 53% of the airframe and describes wing-profile changes that continually optimise its shape in flight. [10]

The A350-900 and longer A350-1000 share the same 64.75-metre wingspan, while their overall lengths are 66.80 and 73.78 metres. [10]

In photographs

Look closer at the shapes, details and liveries. Every photograph links to its original and credits its creator.

Drawings and original documents

Existing published drawings are credited below. These are reference illustrations, not manufacturing blueprints.

• A350 airport and maintenance planning drawings

  Airbus’s published technical reference for airport and maintenance planning, with the family’s dimensioned aircraft drawings and servicing information. Large PDF.

• A350 Family facts and programme timeline, June 2026

  An official backgrounder covering structure, cabin, engines, family dimensions and the first-flight and airline-service timeline.