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A350 arrives in Brazil photo courtesy TAM |
Honig's blog post on the Qatar experience |
Zach Honig, The Points Guy editor, who was on the flight called it the most memorable of his life and posted the flight cam video on YouTube.
Interestingly, Honig says he and another journalist were unable to disembark, despite making requests to do so. An hour and forty minutes later, the A350 was airborne to Doha where it arrived safely, to Honig's relief.
There’s no word on what happened to cause the abrupt halt to takeoff number one, but one can’t discount the possibility of mode confusion as a possibility when an airline begins operating a brand new airplane.
TAM's first A350 takes off Photo courtesy TAM |
“We are very happy to celebrate receiving the first A350 XWB in the Americas," TAM's CEO Claudia Sender said in a press release. "We are pioneers in bringing this aircraft to the region."
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CEO Claudia Sender photo courtesy TAM |
At 40, Sender is also on the younger side of a business where most chief executives are grey, not blonde. She has been with TAM for just five years arriving right after LAN and TAM merged in 2012 making LATAM Airlines Group.
TAM's pilots, flight attendants, maintenance and operations staff will spend January learning about the new star of their long-haul fleet. After that the first revenue flights begin. In March, TAM’s A350 will operate on routes between Sao Paulo and Miami, Orlando and Madrid.
TAM is the fourth airline to receive the A350, a direct competitor to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
Finnair is already flying it between Helsinki and Shanghai with a New York route scheduled to begin for a limited time in January. I’ll be on that trip from JFK in early 2016, so here’s hoping unlike Honig's experience on Qatar, my Finnair takeoff happens exactly right - the very first time.
Finnair is already flying it between Helsinki and Shanghai with a New York route scheduled to begin for a limited time in January. I’ll be on that trip from JFK in early 2016, so here’s hoping unlike Honig's experience on Qatar, my Finnair takeoff happens exactly right - the very first time.