When announcing its 2024 winter schedule, JAL also noted that its new flagship, the A350-1000 will start flying to Dallas Fort Worth daily from tomorrow, August 23, 2024, and to London Heathrow from the fall of 2024.
While originally, the Dallas route was supposed to switch from being operated by the A350-1000 every other day to daily on August 15, that was delayed to August 29, 2024, due to the timing of the type’s fourth and fifth airframe deliveries. With the fourth airframe already in service and, presumably, the fifth airframe ready to enter into service as well, the airline has moved forward the switch to daily A350-1000 operation by a few days.
In January of this year, JAL revealed that London Heathrow would follow Dallas as the third A350-1000 destination without giving a specific timeline.
Though the airline did not provide a specific start date, which depends on when the airline takes delivery of its next A350-1000 airframes, it did say that “the new Airbus A350-1000 aircraft will be introduced on the Haneda-London route in the fall of 2024.” It also specified that the aircraft will be, at least initially, deployed on the JL43/JL44 rotation leaving Haneda in the morning rather than the JL41/JL42 rotation departing Haneda shortly after midnight.
The first route that was switched to the A350-1000 was Haneda – New York JFK. From August 14, 2024, JAL has been operating both of its rotations on the route using the new flagship.
JAL so far took delivery of five A350-1000s with three more expected to follow by the end of March 2025. The airline is using the type to replace its 13 777-300ERs one-to-one. The first 777-300ER to leave the airline’s fleet, JA734J, operated its last commercial flight on August 20, 2024.
The A350-1000s are equipped with brand new seats in all classes, including JAL’s first first and business class seats with doors, and can sit 239 passengers including six in first, 54 in business, 24 in premium economy, and 155 in economy class.
