KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has taken delivery of its first Airbus A350-900 in Toulouse, beginning the Dutch carrier’s long-haul fleet renewal with Airbus’s latest-generation widebody. The aircraft, registered PH-ZNA and named De Nachtwacht, arrived at Amsterdam Schiphol the same day and is scheduled to enter passenger service a few weeks later, initially on the Toronto route.
The new twinjet is configured for 331 passengers in three classes, with 34 Business Class suites, 26 Premium Comfort seats and 271 seats in Economy. It is the first of 22 A350-900s planned for KLM and will progressively replace older widebody capacity across the airline’s intercontinental network.
KLM has lined up a wider deployment plan for the type, with Montreal, Kilimanjaro, Dar es Salaam, Nairobi and Zanzibar also included in the early route programme. The initial commercial introduction had been subject to cabin certification timing, which has kept the first flights under close operational review. The aircraft’s arrival comes after test flying in Toulouse and a ferry flight to the Netherlands, where it joined the fleet on 2 October.