Cathay Pacific’s first A350-900 taking shape

Cathay Pacific's first A350-900 at the Airbus final assembly line at Toulouse, France. (Airbus) — Cathay Pacific’s first A350-900. (Airbus)

Airbus has released an image of Cathay Pacific’s first Airbus A350-900 taking shape at the manufacturer’s final assembly line at Tolouse, France.

The image shows the wings, the horizontal and vertical tailplane as well as tail cone have been joined to the fuselage, with the aircraft sporting serial number MSN 29.

Cathay, which has 48 A350s on order comprising 22 A350-900s and 26 of the larger A350-1000s, is expected to take delivery of the aircraft in February 2016.

While Cathay has not publicly announced which route would be the first to receive A350 services, Aspire Aviation reported Auckland would be the first long-haul route to switch to the A350 in May, following several months of short-haul operations around Asia to get crews up to speed with the new type.

Also, the oneworld alliance member has flagged a new business class seat for its A350 fleet.