The A330-900 has received type certification from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification expected to follow shortly.
The A330-900 is one of two A330neo variants being launched by Airbus. Guillaume Faury, president of Airbus Commercial Aircraft said, “The A330neo embodies our spirit of innovation. This new generation aircraft has tremendous market potential.
“We look forward to delivering the first aircraft equipped with the new Airspace cabin to our launch customer TAP Air Portugal in the coming weeks.”
TAP Air Portugal’s first aircraft also served as a route proving demonstrator for the aircraft’s function and performed reliability tests this summer, when it visited more than 12 countries on a worldwide tour. The Portuguese airline has ordered 10 A330-900 aircraft.
The A330neo was launched in July 2014 as the latest generation of Airbus’s wide-body family of commercial airliners, and builds on the A330’s “proven economics, versatility and reliability”, said Airbus, while reducing fuel consumption by 14% per seat.
The two versions of the A330neo – the A330-800 and A330-900 – can accommodate 257 and 287 passengers respectively in a three-class seating layout, and are powered by the latest-generation Rolls-Royce Trent 7000 engines. They also feature a new larger span wing with Sharklet wingtip devices.
Two other A330-900 flight test aircraft were produced. Together, the certification flight test campaign has successfully completed around 1,400 flight test hours in under a year since first flight on October 19, 2017.
The A330 is one of the most popular wide-body families ever, having received more than 1,700 orders from 120 customers. More than 1,400 A330s are flying with over 120 operators worldwide.
The A330neo is the latest addition to the leading Airbus wide-body family, which also includes the A350 XWB and the A380, all featuring unmatched space and comfort combined with unprecedented efficiency levels and unrivalled range capability.