A350F Freighter Makes First Flight; Etihad Has 10 on Order

Airbus’s first purpose-built A350 freighter has flown. The test aircraft, MSN 700, took off from Toulouse on 29 September and spent 4 hours 10 minutes in the air, climbing to 25,000 feet before landing back at base, according to Airbus.

The crew of three was made up of Captain Bernardo Saez-Benito, First Officer Sylvain Guiraud and Test Flight Engineer Ludovic Girard. The aircraft is fitted with dedicated flight-test instrumentation, and Airbus says the flight marks the start of a test campaign lasting more than nine months. A second test aircraft, MSN 701, is due to go into the paint shop within weeks.

Lars Wagner, CEO of Airbus Commercial Aircraft, called the flight a major milestone for the programme and its customers.

What the aircraft offers

The A350F is the dedicated cargo version of the A350 family, built new with a main-deck cargo door rather than converted from a passenger jet. Airbus quotes a payload of up to 111 tonnes and a range of up to 8,700 km. More than 70% of the airframe is made of advanced materials, and Airbus says its maximum take-off weight is 46 tonnes lower than that of a competing aircraft, giving up to 40% lower fuel burn and CO2 emissions than comparable freighters. Airbus also describes it as the first new freighter to fully meet ICAO’s CO2 emissions standard.

Power comes from the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97, the higher-thrust version of the engine already flying on the A350-1000. In its own statement on the same day, Rolls-Royce said the engine has eight years of service behind it and more than 4.5 million engine flight hours. The engine maker also said a third durability package, which it says doubles time on wing in demanding environments and gives a 50% improvement in benign conditions, will enter service in 2028.

The hot, sandy conditions in the Gulf are exactly the kind of “demanding environment” engine makers talk about, so that durability work matters as much to operators here as the airframe numbers.

The Gulf order book

By the end of August 2026 the A350F had 115 orders from 14 disclosed customers, and Airbus says it holds a 59% share of the large-freighter category.

In the Gulf, the clearest commitment comes from Etihad Airways. The Abu Dhabi carrier firmed an order for seven A350Fs in August 2022 and added three more in November 2025, taking its total commitment to ten aircraft. The same November 2025 deal also raised Etihad’s A350-1000 order to 27 aircraft, which means the airline will run a large fleet of Trent XWB-97 engines across both its passenger and cargo operations.

That shared engine is a practical point for engineering departments. Pilots, mechanics, spares and maintenance programmes can be shared across the passenger A350-1000 and the A350F, which lowers training and inventory costs for an airline running both types.

What comes next

With the first flight done, the focus now moves to the test campaign and certification. Gulf cargo operators will be watching closely, as the A350F competes directly with Boeing’s 777-8 Freighter, which is also on order in the region.