Cathay Pacific (CX, Hong Kong International) has tentatively set London Gatwick as its maiden A350-900 longhaul destination with a 4x weekly direct service from Hong Kong International set to launch on September 2, 2016.
As with other first time operators, it is presumed that for crew training purposes, Cathay Pacific will initially deploy the new aircraft on shorthaul regional flights prior to using them for longhaul operations.
The Hong Kong-based carrier has a total of twenty-two A350-900s and twenty-six A350-1000s on order from Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac). The jets will be used to replace Cathay Pacific's ageing B777-200(ER) and A340-300 fleets.
