The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) granted the type certification for the latest Airbus airliner, the A350-900, on September 30. This is an essential precon-dition to, and opens the way for, the aircraft entering commercial service with its customers. It is expected that the US Federal Aviation Administration will grant its certification to the new aeroplane in the near future.

The A350-900 is the first member of Airbus’s A350 XWB new-generation airliner family. The other member will be the larger A350-1000. Both will be powered by Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines. While the A350-900 will, on average, accommodate 315 passengers, the A350-1000 will have an average capacity of 369. The previously proposed smaller A350-800, with an average capacity of 276 passengers, has been frozen and Airbus now believes that the A330neo (new engine option) will be a better aircraft for that market segment.

“Receiving the A350-900 type certification from the EASA is a great achievement for Airbus and for all our partners who have contributed to designing, building and certificating this fantastic, new-generation aircraft,” affirmed Airbus president and CEO Fabrice Brégier. “The A350 XWB embodies many extra innovative technologies which will make all the difference in passenger comfort and airline efficiency.”

One of the companies involved in the A350 XWB programme is South Africa’s Aerosud, which produces the advanced composite frame clips for the aircraft. Several thousand of these are installed on each aircraft and their function is to secure the fuselage outer skin panels to the fuselage’s skeletonlike structure. Further, Cobham South Africa manufactures the satellite communication antennas for the aircraft.

“The A350 XWB manufacturing programme has also been innovative and ambitious, aiming for a fully mature aircraft at entry into service and this is what we are proud to be delivering to our first A350 XWB customer, Qatar Airways, before the end of the year,” he stated. “Our fleet of five test aircraft completed the certification campaign, on time, cost and quality. Accumulating more than 2 600 flight hours, we created and successfully achieved one of the industry’s most thorough and efficient test programmes ever developed for a jetliner.”

The A350 XWB is manufactured mainly from composites and other modern materials, such as titanium and modern aluminium alloys. Altogether, these make up 70% of the airframe and greatly reduce corrosion and fatigue, while making maintenance easier. Optimised design has increased aerodynamic efficiency. Fuel consumption is reduced and the result is a 25% cut in operating costs. The Trent XWB engines give 25% less carbon dioxide emissions per passenger and have the lowest carbon emissions of any wide- body airliner power plant.

Passenger comfort has also been attended to. The aircraft is fitted with improved air con-ditioning and lighting systems, wide panoramic windows and an improved in-flight entertainment system. It will be capable of supporting high-speed Wi-Fi access for all passengers in flight. Even in economy class, there will be extra leg room and extra space at shoulder level.

As of the end of May, the A350 XWB had 750 orders from 39 customers. Two of these customers are African airlines. Ethiopian Airlines has 12 on order while Air Mauritius recently ordered six. The A350 has been offered to South African Airways to fulfil its long-range fleet replacement requirement. One of the A350-900 test aircraft recently made the type’s first visit to South Africa,