Toulouse has seen a great many first flights, but few in a paint scheme that looks like a cardboard box. On 29 September 2026, the first Airbus A350F, MSN700, registered F-WXLD, lifted off from Toulouse-Blagnac in its brown test livery with bright orange wingtips and a large “Open here for business” label on the fuselage. It is a freighter, after all.
Four hours and ten minutes later it was back on the ground. According to Airbus, the crew took the aircraft to 25,000 feet and up to 340 knots indicated airspeed, checking airworthiness, flying qualities and basic systems. A Dassault Falcon flew chase, and the whole thing was streamed live to anyone who wanted to watch. Nearly a million people have since done so on YouTube.
This was the moment the programme has been working towards since the freighter was launched in 2021, and it is a significant one for Europe’s air-cargo ambitions. The widebody freighter market has belonged to Boeing for decades.
Datos rápidos
- Aeronave: Airbus A350F, MSN700, registration F-WXLD
- Primer vuelo: 29 September 2026, Toulouse-Blagnac
- Duración: 4 hours 10 minutes
- Tested to: 25,000 ft and 340 kt indicated airspeed
- Motores: Two Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97
- Payload / range: Up to 111 tonnes / up to 8,700 km, per Airbus
- Orders: 115 from 14 disclosed customers (end of August 2026)
- Next step: About 400 flight hours with two aircraft; first deliveries expected in the second half of 2027
Who was on board
Airbus named a five-person crew. Captain and test pilot Bernardo Saez-Benito flew with experimental test pilot Sylvain Guiraud as first officer. Ludovic Girard was the test flight engineer, and Laurent Bussière and Jaime Angoloti sat in as lead flight test engineers, watching the data pour in.
The first flight is only the start. Airbus plans a certification campaign of more than nine months, roughly 400 flight hours, using MSN700 and a second aircraft, MSN701, which Airbus says is at an advanced stage of final assembly and heads to the paint shop within weeks. Industry reports put the first deliveries in the second half of 2027.
Julien Puyou, who heads the widebody programme, described the journey from a bold vision on paper in 2021 to a flying aircraft as the product of collective determination across Airbus’s European teams. For once, the corporate phrasing has a point: the parts for this airframe came from sites in France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom.
What makes the A350F different
The A350F is derived from the A350-1000 passenger jet but has a shorter fuselage. Its headline feature is a main-deck cargo door that Airbus calls the largest in commercial aviation, big enough to swallow the oversized pallets and engines that freight forwarders love to complain about. More than 70 per cent of the airframe is made from advanced materials, mostly carbon composites.
Airbus claims up to 40 per cent lower fuel burn and CO₂ emissions than previous-generation freighters. That matters more than ever: new ICAO emissions rules taking effect in 2028 will stop production of older freighter designs that cannot meet them. Airbus says it has already captured 59 per cent of the large-freighter market with 115 orders from 14 disclosed customers.
Por qué es importante
For fifty years, if you wanted a big purpose-built freighter, you bought a Boeing. The 747F and then the 777F have dominated the category, while Airbus had only the smaller A330-200F and a steady stream of passenger jets converted to cargo. The A350F is its most ambitious attempt yet to take the large-freighter market head-on.
Now it just has to get through ten months of testing. One flight down, about 400 hours to go.
Airbus’s livestream of the A350F’s first take-off from Toulouse, 29 September 2026.
Sources: Airbus press release and newsroom, FLYING Magazine, AeroTime, Airways Magazine
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