On Saturday, March 26th, British Airways took delivery of another brand new A350-1000 from Airbus, marking the airline's 11th of the type. Despite fellow oneworld alliance member Qatar Airways' involvement in a messy public spat with Airbus, British Airways continues to operate all of its A350s while taking delivery of more.

From Toulouse to London

By now, the journey from Toulouse to London is a very well-established route. Not only have 10 other British Airways A350s made this exact same journey, but it's also a route that most other new Airbus-made BA aircraft would have to complete.

The delivery of this latest A350, registered G-XWBI, means that the carrier is well over halfway to accepting all 18 jets it had originally signed for. The airline first took delivery of the A350-1000 some three years ago- with the first four arriving in 2019, and another four in 2020. While the carrier didn't add any A350s to its fleet in 2021, it did accept its 9th and 10th in 2022.

The delivery of this 11th A350 took place on March 26th, with the aircraft taking off from Toulouse at 15:15 local time. The short one-hour and 23-minute flight had it touch down at London Heathrow at 15:38 local time.

At the time of this article's publication, no commercial flights have yet been publicly scheduled for the brand new aircraft.

Parent company discloses surface degradation issues

It was at the beginning of March that British Airways (and Iberia) parent company IAG revealed that it had been experiencing surface degradation issues similar to that of Qatar Airways.

As we reported on March 3rd, the issues with the aircraft were picked up during routine checks, particularly the longer C-check inspection. Commenting on the situation, the airline group's CEO expressed confidence that his aircraft were still fit to fly.

“We can see the problem in daily checks but mainly when you stop the aircraft for the first C-check. We have very young aircraft, so the level of defects that we see maybe is not comparable to others. We have informed in our case EASA, and EASA told us that the level of degradation that we are experiencing doesn't impact the airworthiness of the aircraft.”

The confidence expressed by European air safety regulator EASA stands in stark contrast to concerns from the Qatari Civil Aviation Authority, which has grounded over 20 of Qatar Airways' A350s. At the same time, it's unknown how similar the degradation issues are between the A350s of the different carriers.

Other widebody woes for British Airways

While British Airways continues to take delivery of the Airbus A350, new deliveries of Boeing aircraft are lagging on multiple fronts.

Ordering 10 787-10s, the British flag carrier managed to take delivery of just two of the stretched Dreamliners in 2020. However, any subsequent 787-10s produced for British Airways have gone straight to storage. While this may have been initially triggered by the pandemic-induced travel downturn, it would seem that subsequent delays are a result of Boeing's production and certification issues being worked out with the FAA. At least five of these aircraft are built but still undelivered.

This year was also supposed to be the year the carrier would take delivery of its first 777-9. However, program delays have pushed the first delivery back to 2024.