Airbus A350 XWB

The Airbus A350 XWB is a family of long-range, twin-engine wide-body jet airliners developed by European aircraft manufacturer Airbus. The A350 is the first Airbus with both fuselage and wing structures made primarily of carbon-fibre-reinforced polymer. Its variants seat 280 to 366 passengers in typical three-class seating layouts. The A350 is positioned to succeed the A330 and A340, and compete with Boeing's 787 and 777.

The A350 was originally conceived in 2004, pairing the A330's fuselage with new aerodynamics features and engines. In 2006, Airbus redesigned the aircraft in response to criticism from several major prospective customers and renamed it the A350 XWB (extra wide body). Development costs are estimated at €11 billion (US$15 billion or £9.5 billion).As of December 2015, Airbus had received orders for 777 A350s from 41 customers worldwide. The prototype A350 first flew on 14 June 2013 from Toulouse, France. Type certification from the European Aviation Safety Agency was received in September 2014 and certification from the Federal Aviation Administration two months later. On 15 January 2015, the A350 entered service with Qatar Airways, the type's launch customer.

Qatar Airways

Qatar Airways Company Q.C.S.C. (Arabic: القطرية‎, Al Qatariyah), operating as Qatar Airways, is the state-owned flag carrier of Qatar. Headquartered in the Qatar Airways Tower in Doha, the airline operates a hub-and-spoke network, linking over 140 international destinations across Africa, Central Asia, Europe, Far East, South Asia, Middle East, North America, South America and Oceania from its base at Hamad International Airport, using a fleet of more than 150 aircraft.

Qatar Airways Group employs more than 31,000 people, of which 19,000 work directly for Qatar Airways. The carrier has been a member of the Oneworld alliance since October 2013 (2013-10), the first Gulf carrier to sign with one of the three airline alliances.

History

Qatar Airways was established on 22 November 1993 (1993-11-22); operations started on 20 January 1994 (1994-01-20).Amman was first served in May 1994 (1994-05). At April 1995 (1995-04), the airline's CEO was the Sheikh Hamad Bin Ali Bin Jabor Al Thani who employed 75. By this time the fleet consisted of two Airbus A310s that served a route network including Abu Dhabi, Bangkok, Cairo, Dubai, Khartoum, Kuwait, London, Madras, Manila, Muscat, Osaka, Sharjah, Taipei, Tokyo and Trivandrum. During 1995, two ex-All Nippon Airways Boeing 747s were bought from Boeing. The airline acquired a second-hand Boeing 747SP from Air Mauritius in 1996 (1996).

Singapore Airlines

Singapore Airlines Limited (SIA; SGX: C6L) is the flag carrier of Singapore with its hub at Changi Airport.

The Singapore Airlines group includes many airline-related subsidiaries: SIA Engineering Company handles maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) business across nine countries, with a portfolio of 27 joint ventures, including with Boeing and Rolls-Royce. Singapore Airlines Cargo operate SIA's freighter fleet and manages the cargo-hold capacity in SIA's passenger aircraft. It has three airlines subsidiaries: SilkAir operates regional flights to secondary cities, while Scoot and Tigerair operate in the low-cost carrier sector.

Singapore Airlines was the launch customer for the Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger aircraft. It ranks amongst the top 15 carriers worldwide in terms of revenue passenger kilometres, and 10th in the world for international passengers carried. On 15 December 2010, Singapore Airlines was named by the International Air Transport Association as the second largest airline in the world by market capitalisation, worth of 14 billion US dollars. Singapore Airlines utilises the Singapore Girl as its central figure in its corporate branding. The airline is also regarded as a Singaporean national symbol and icon.

Air Mauritius

Air Mauritius Limited, operating as Air Mauritius, is the flag carrier airline of Mauritius. The airline is headquartered at the Air Mauritius Centre in Port Louis, Mauritius. Its main hub is Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport.

The company is the fourth largest carrier in Sub-Saharan Africa, and has an important standing in the European, African, and Indian Ocean region markets; the airline won the “2011 Indian Ocean Leading Airline Prize”, making it the seventh year in a row for it to win the award.

History

The company was set up on 14 June 1967 (1967-06-14) by Air France, the BOAC enterprise, and the Government of Mauritius, with a 27.5% stake each; the balance was held by Rogers and Co. Ltd., the general sales agent for Air France and BOAC in Mauritius.

In the beginning, the carrier operated international services in conjunction with Air France, Air India and British Airways, which jointly had a 25% holding in Air Mauritius at that time. Until 1972, the company restricted its activities to ground services only; it started flight operations in its own right in August 1972 with a six-seater Piper PA-31 Navajo aircraft leased from Air Madagascar, connecting Mauritius with Rodrigues. The aircraft wore an Air Mauritius decor, but kept a Malagasy registration. In 1973, a wet-leased Vickers VC10 from British Airways enabled the company to launch a long-haul route to London via Nairobi, whereas services to Bombay were operated by Air India. The Navajo was replaced with a 16-seater Twin Otter that was acquired in 1975. When an agreement with Air France and British Airways came to an end, a Boeing 707-400 wet-leased from British Airtours helped the airline to start long-haul services in its own right. Long-range operations started on 1 November 1977 (1977-11-01). A second Twin Otter arrived in 1979.

Cathay Pacific

Cathay Pacific (Chinese: 國泰航空) (SEHK: 0293) is the flag carrier of Hong Kong, with its head office and main hub located at Hong Kong International Airport. The airline's operations include scheduled passenger and cargo services to 200 destinations in 52 countries worldwide, codeshares, and joint ventures, with a fleet of wide-body aircraft, consisting of Airbus A330, Airbus A340, Boeing 747 (which are beginning to be retired) and Boeing 777 equipment. Its wholly owned subsidiary, Dragonair, operates to 44 destinations in the Asia-Pacific region from its Hong Kong base. In 2010, Cathay Pacific and Dragonair carried nearly 27 million passengers and over 1.8 million tonnes of cargo and mail.

The airline was founded on 24 September 1946 by Australian Sydney H. de Kantzow and American Roy C. Farrell, with each man putting up HK$1 to register the airline. The airline made the world's first non-stop transpolar flight flying over the North Pole in July 1998, which was also the maiden flight to arrive at the then new Hong Kong International Airport. The airline celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2006; and as of October 2009, its major shareholders are Swire Pacific and Air China. It is reciprocally one of the major shareholders of Air China. Cathay Pacific currently holds the title of the world's third largest airline, measured in terms of market capitalisation, according to the International Air Transport Association. In 2010, Cathay Pacific became the world's largest international cargo airline, along with main hub Hong Kong International Airport as the world's busiest airport in terms of cargo traffic.