Vietnam Airlines’ first A350 makes maiden test flight

The A350, which is painted in the airline’s blue and gold colours and bears Vietnamese aircraft registration VN-A886 under the wing, completed its maiden flight at Airbus’s Toulouse headquarters on Tuesday (European time).

Vietnam Airlines has 14 A350s on order – 10 directly from Airbus and four via lease.

This aircraft, MSN14 in the A350 production line, will be leased to Vietnam Airlines from AerCap and is scheduled for delivery in the middle of 2015 following cabin completion and further ground and flight tests, Airbus said in a statement.

Vietnam flies to Sydney and Melbourne from Ho Chi Minh City.

Qatar Airways, the launch customer for the A350 program with orders for 80 of the type, currently has three of the new generation aircraft in its fleet.