A350 in Qatar colours delights Al Baker

Al Baker visited the Airbus headquarters last week to see at first hand how the A350-900 - for which Qatar is the launch customer - is progressing.

He was pleasantly surprised to see that MSN4 (the fourth aircraft to be manufacturerd) was painted in the Qatar livery on the forward fuselage and bearing the legend "A350 XWB Launch Customer". The rear fuselage and the tail is marked in the standard Airbus test aircraft colours.

There will be five aircraft in the programme with the Qatar-painted aircraft being used for noise and lightning and maintenance and pilot training and avionics development. Al Baker said he was delighted with what he had seen.

Al Baker was back in Doha in time to see the first test model land at the new Doha airport ahead of its date at next week's Singapore Airshow.