Finnair (AY, Helsinki Vantaa) took delivery of its maiden A350-900 on Wednesday, October 7, 2015. The aircraft, OH-LWA (cn 18), was ferried from Toulouse Blagnac to Helsinki Vantaa following a hand-over ceremony at the Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) factory in France.

The Finnish carrier has a total of nineteen A350-900s on order from the Europeans with the first four aircraft expected to arrive between now and year-end. Another seven will be delivered in 2016 and 2017 while the remaining eleven will arrive by 2023.

The twinjet's commercial service will begin on Friday, October 9 with flights from Helsinki to Amsterdam Schiphol and Oslo Gardermoen which will also act as crew familiarisation flights. Thereafter, the A350 is expected to enter into long-haul service on November 21, 2015 on Finnair's Helsinki-Shanghai Pudong route.