Background and early designs Airbus initially rejected Boeing's claim that the
Boeing 787 Dreamliner would be a serious threat to the
Airbus A330, stating that the 787 was just a reaction to the A330 and that no response was needed. When airlines urged Airbus to provide a competitor, Airbus initially proposed the "A330-200 Lite", a derivative of the A330 featuring improved aerodynamics and engines similar to those on the 787. The company planned to announce this version at the 2004
Farnborough Airshow, but did not proceed. On 16 September 2004, Airbus president and chief executive officer
Noël Forgeard confirmed the consideration of a new project during a private meeting with prospective customers. Forgeard did not give a project name, and did not state whether it would be an entirely new design or a modification of an existing product. Airline dissatisfaction with this proposal motivated Airbus to commit €4 billion to a new airliner design. It had a common
fuselage cross-section with the A330 and also a new
horizontal stabiliser.
Emirates sought a more improved design and decided against ordering the initial version of the A350. On 6 October 2005, the programme's industrial launch was announced with an estimated development cost of around €3.5 billion. In April 2006, while reviewing bids for the Boeing 787 and A350, the CEO of
Singapore Airlines (SIA)
Chew Choon Seng, commented that "having gone through the trouble of designing a new wing, tail, and
cockpit, [Airbus] should have gone the whole hog and designed a new fuselage". Airbus responded that they were considering A350 improvements to satisfy customer demands. Airbus's then-CEO
Gustav Humbert stated, "Our strategy isn't driven by the needs of the next one or two campaigns, but rather by a long-term view of the market and our ability to deliver on our promises." As major airlines such as
Qantas and
Singapore Airlines selected the 787 over the A350, Humbert tasked an engineering team to produce new alternative designs. One such proposal, known internally as "1d", formed the basis of the A350 redesign. Within four days, Singapore Airlines agreed to order 20 A350 XWBs with
options for another 20 A350 XWBs. The proposed A350 was a new design, including a wider fuselage cross-section, allowing seating arrangements ranging from an eight-across low-density premium economy layout to a ten-across high-density seating configuration for a maximum
seating capacity of 440–475 depending on variant. The A330 and previous iterations of the A350 would only be able to accommodate a maximum of eight seats per row. The 787 is typically configured for nine seats per row. The 777 accommodates nine or ten seats per row, with more than half of recent 777s being configured in a ten-across layout that will come standard on the
777X. The A350 cabin is wider at the eye level of a seated passenger than the 787's cabin, and narrower than the Boeing 777's cabin (see the
Wide-body aircraft comparison of cabin widths and seating). The redesigned composite fuselage allows for higher cabin pressure and humidity, and lower maintenance costs. On 1 December 2006, the Airbus board of directors approved the industrial launch of the A350-800, -900, and -1000 variants. The delayed launch decision was a result of delays to the
Airbus A380 and discussions on how to fund development. EADS CEO
Thomas Enders stated that the A350 programme was not a certainty, citing EADS/Airbus's stretched resources. However, it was decided programme costs are to be borne mainly from cash-flow. First delivery for the A350-900 was scheduled for mid-2013, with the -800 and -1000 following on 12 and 24 months later, respectively. The design change imposed a two-year delay into the original timetable and increased development costs from US$5.5 billion (€5.3 billion) to approximately US$10 billion (€9.7 billion).
Reuters estimated the A350's total development cost at US$15 billion (€12 billion or £10 billion). The original mid-2013 delivery date of the A350 was changed, as a longer than anticipated development forced Airbus to delay the final assembly and first flight of the aircraft to the third quarter of 2012 and second quarter of 2013 respectively. As a result, the
flight test schedule was compressed from the original 15 months to 12 months. A350 programme chief Didier Evrard stressed that delays only affected the A350-900 while the -800 and -1000 schedules remained unchanged. Airbus' 2019 earnings report indicated the A350 programme had broken even that year.
Design phase Airbus suggested Boeing's use of
composite materials for the 787 fuselage was premature, and that the new A350 XWB was to feature
carbon fibre panels only for the main fuselage skin. However, after facing criticism for maintenance costs, Airbus confirmed in early September 2007 that it would also use carbon fibre for fuselage frames. The composite frames would feature aluminium strips to ensure the electrical continuity of the fuselage, for dissipating
lightning strikes. Airbus used a full
mock up fuselage to develop the wiring, a different approach from the A380, on which the wiring was all done on computers. In 2006, Airbus confirmed development of a full
bleed air system on the A350, as opposed to the 787's bleedless configuration.
Rolls-Royce agreed with Airbus to supply a new variant of the
Trent turbofan engine for the A350 XWB, named
Trent XWB. In 2010, after low-speed wind tunnel tests, Airbus finalised the static thrust at sea level for all three proposed variants to the range. GE stated it would not offer the
GP7000 engine on the aircraft, and that previous contracts for the
GEnx on the original A350 did not apply to the XWB.
Engine Alliance partner
Pratt & Whitney seemed to be unaligned with GE on this, having publicly stated that it was looking at an advanced derivative of the GP7000. In April 2007, former Airbus CEO Louis Gallois held direct talks with GE management over developing a GEnx variant for the A350 XWB. In June 2007, John Leahy indicated that the A350 XWB would not feature the GEnx engine, saying that Airbus wanted GE to offer a more efficient version for the airliner. Since then, the largest GE engines operators, which include Emirates,
US Airways,
Hawaiian Airlines and ILFC have selected the Trent XWB for their A350 orders. In May 2009, GE said that if it were to reach a deal with Airbus to offer the current 787-optimised GEnx for the A350, it would only power the -800 and -900 variants. GE believed it could offer a product that outperforms the
Trent 1000 and Trent XWB, but was reluctant to support an aircraft competing directly with its GE90-115B-powered 777 variants. In January 2008, French-based
Thales Group won a US$2.9 billion (€2 billion) 20-year contract to supply avionics and navigation equipment for the A350 XWB, beating
Honeywell and
Rockwell Collins. US-based Rockwell Collins and
Moog Inc. were chosen to supply the horizontal stabiliser actuator and primary flight control actuation, respectively. The flight management system incorporated several new safety features. Regarding cabin ergonomics and entertainment, in 2006 Airbus signed a firm contract with
BMW for development of an interior concept for the original A350. On 4 February 2010, Airbus signed a contract with
Panasonic Avionics Corporation to deliver in-flight entertainment and communication (IFEC) systems for the Airbus A350 XWB.
Production ) on the Toulouse
assembly line, December 2014 In 2008, Airbus planned to start cabin furnishing early in parallel with final assembly to cut production time in half. The A350 XWB production programme sees extensive international collaboration and investments in new facilities: Airbus constructed 10 new factories in
Western Europe and the US, with extensions carried out on three further sites. Among the new buildings was a £570 million (US$760 million or €745 million) composite facility in
Broughton, Wales, which would be responsible for the wings. In June 2009, the
National Assembly for Wales announced provision of a £28 million grant to provide a training centre, production jobs and money toward the new production centre. Airbus manufactured the first structural component in December 2009. Production of the first fuselage barrel began in late 2010 at its production plant in
Illescas, Spain. Construction of the first A350-900 centre wingbox was set to start in August 2010. The new composite rudder plant in China opened in early 2011. The forward fuselage of the first A350 was delivered to the final assembly plant in Toulouse on 29 December 2011. Final assembly of the first A350 static test model was started on 5 April 2012. Final assembly of the first prototype A350 was completed in December 2012. In 2018, the unit cost of the A350-900 was
US$317.4 million and the A350-1000 was US$366.5 million. The production rate was expected to rise from three aircraft per month in early 2015 to five at the end of 2015, and would ramp to ten aircraft per month by 2018. In 2015, 17 planes would be delivered and the initial dispatch reliability was 98%. Airbus announced plans to increase its production rate from 10 monthly in 2018 to 13 monthly from 2019 and six A330 are produced monthly. Around 90 deliveries were expected for 2018, with 15% or ≈ units being A350-1000 variants. That year, 93 aircraft were delivered, three more than expected. In 2019, Airbus delivered 112 A350s (87 A350-900s and 25 A350-1000s) at a rate of 10 per month, and were going to keep the rate around nine to 10 per month, to reflect softer demand for widebodies, as the backlog reached 579 − or years of production at a constant rate. The
COVID-19 pandemic caused the decrease of A350 production from 9.5 per month to six per month, since April 2020. After the pandemic a ramp-up is planned, aiming to reach a rate of 9 per month by the end of 2025. As the pre-pandemic rate of 10 monthly is aimed for by 2026, by April 2024 Airbus was planning a 12-monthly production rate by 2028 after securing 281 net orders in 2023.
Testing and certification The first Trent engine test was made on 14 June 2010. The Trent XWB's flight test programme began use on the A380 development aircraft in early 2011, ahead of engine certification in late 2011. On 2 June 2013, the Trent XWB engines were powered up on the A350 for the first time. Airbus confirmed that the flight test programme would last 12 months and use five test aircraft. The A350's maiden flight took place on 14 June 2013 from the
Toulouse–Blagnac Airport. Airbus's chief test pilot said, "it just seemed really happy in the air...all the things we were testing had no major issues at all". It flew for four hours, reaching Mach 0.8 at 25,000 feet after retracting the
landing gear and starting a 2,500 h flight test campaign. Costs for developing the aircraft were estimated at €11 billion (US$15 billion or £9.5 billion) in June 2013. A350 XWB
msn. 2 underwent two and a half weeks of climatic tests in the unique
McKinley Climatic Laboratory at
Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, in May 2014, and was subjected to multiple climatic and humidity settings from to . The A350 received type certification from the
European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) on 30 September 2014. On 15 October 2014, EASA approved the A350-900 for
ETOPS (Extended-range Twin-engine Operations Performance Standards) 370, allowing it to fly more than six hours on one engine and making it the first airliner to be approved for "ETOPS Beyond 180 minutes" before entry into service. Later that month Airbus received regulatory approval for a Common Type Rating for pilot training between the A350 XWB and A330. On 12 November 2014, the A350 received certification from the FAA. On 1 August 2017, the EASA issued an
airworthiness directive mandating operators to power cycle (reset) early A350-900s before 149 hours of continuous power-on time, reissued in July 2019.
Entry into service In June 2011, the A350-900 was scheduled to enter service in the first half of 2014, with the -800 to enter service in mid-2016, and the -1000 in 2017. The delivery to launch customer Qatar Airways took place on 22 December 2014. The first commercial flight was made on 15 January 2015 between
Doha and
Frankfurt. The first A350-1000 was assembled in 2016 and had its first flight on 24 November 2016. The aircraft was then delivered on 20 February 2018 to Qatar Airways, which had also been the launch operator of the -900. and entered the commercial service with a flight from Doha to
London on 24 February 2018.
Shorter A350-800 The -long A350-800 was designed to seat 276 passengers in a typical three-class configuration with a range of with an MTOW of . In January 2010, Airbus opted to develop the -800 as a shrink of the baseline -900 to simplify development and increase its payload by or its range by , but this led to a fuel burn penalty of "a couple of percent", according to John Leahy. The previously planned optimisation to the structure and landing gear was not beneficial enough against better
commonality and maximum takeoff weight increase by 11t from 248t. The −800's fuselage is 10 frames shorter (six forward and four aft of wing) than the −900 aircraft. It was designed to supplement the Airbus A330-200 long-range twin. Airbus planned to decrease structural weight in the -800 as development continued, which should have been around airframe 20. While its backlog reached 182 in mid-2008, it diminished since 2010 as customers switched to the larger -900. After launching the
Airbus A330neo at the 2014 Farnborough Airshow, Airbus dropped the A350-800, with its CEO
Fabrice Brégier saying "I believe all of our customers will either convert to the A350-900 or the A330neo". He later confirmed at a September 2014 press conference that development of the A350-800 had been "cancelled". There were 16 orders left for the -800 since
Yemenia switched to the -900 and
Hawaiian Airlines moved to the A330neo in December 2014: eight for
Aeroflot and eight for
Asiana Airlines, both also having orders for the -900. In January 2017, Aeroflot and Airbus announced the cancellation of its -800 order, leaving Asiana Airlines as the only customer for the variant. After the negotiation between Airbus and Asiana Airlines, Asiana converted orders of eight A350-800s and one A350-1000 to nine A350-900s.
Longer A350-1000 In 2011, Airbus redesigned the A350-1000 with higher weights and a more powerful engine variant to provide more range for trans-Pacific operations. This boosted its appeal to
Cathay Pacific and
Singapore Airlines, who were committed to purchase 20 Boeing 777-9s, and to
United Airlines, which was considering Boeing 777-300ERs to replace its
747-400s. Assembly of the first fuselage major components started in September 2015. In February 2016, final assembly started at the A350 Final Assembly Line in Toulouse.