Cathay Pacific’s inaugural departure from Sea-Tac Airport
Cathay Pacific’s new non-stop service from Seattle to Hong Kong launched on April 1 with four flights per week; the service will go daily starting July 1.
The new offering is the only current flight between the two Pacific Rim cities; that should make it a popular option for travelers.
Cathay Pacific went all-out with a launch party at the gate
Cathay Pacific is using its excellent Airbus A350-900 on the route, which is now the airline’s eighth to the United States and follows existing services to Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York (JFK), New York (Newark), San Francisco, and Washington DC.
It’s not every day that you get to fly an aircraft model for the first time. But at long last, after my fair share of missed attempts, I finally got a chance to fly an Airbus A350. I’m a bit ashamed I hadn’t flown it sooner. Being based in San Francisco, it’s been easier to fly the A350’s contemporary — Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner — courtesy of United and its star alliance partners ANA and Air Canada. I was excited to see firsthand how the A350 would compare, and it definitely did not disappoint.
Read on for this AvGeek’s take on the joys of flying Airbus’ A350, and thoughts on how it stacks up against my time flying the 787. Some of the differences are a matter of math, some are slightly more subjective. And yes, we’ll even talk about the most contentious topic of all — window shades versus window dimmers!
The A350XWB shows its stuff at the Singapore Airshow – Photo: Jacob Pfleger | AirlineReporter
The Singapore Airshow is in full swing right now and although we will have a nice wrap-up story at the end, we wanted to share some photos.
These are pictures of the third Airbus A350 XWB (MSN003) taking its first flight at an airshow like this and according to Jacob Pfleger, who is at the show for AirlineReporter, the most noticeable thing for him was how quiet the plane was. “During its fly-by I was impressed with how quiet it is and in my opinion it’s the quietest jet out there even more so than the Airbus A380 or even Boeing 787,” Pfleger explained via email.
