KLM's first Airbus A350 completes its test flights: delivery in September and first destinations in Canada and East Africa

KLM's first Airbus A350 has flown. The Dutch airline announced on 10 September 2026 that the aircraft, named "De Nachtwacht" after Rembrandt's "The Night Watch", completed its test flights the previous week, and that delivery is planned for later this month. It is the first A350 to join KLM's fleet, and with it begins the renewal of its long-haul operation.

KLM's release is short and specific about what it announces. The test flights have been completed; delivery will come in September, with no exact date; and the first destinations the aircraft will serve are Toronto and Montreal, in Canada, and Kilimanjaro, Dar es Salaam, Nairobi and Zanzibar, in East Africa. The company does not specify in the statement the aircraft's variant, its registration, its cabin layout or the date of its first commercial flight; nor does it include quotes from any executive.

The context comes from the airline itself, in the release with which it announced the order on 25 September 2023. The Air France-KLM group ordered 50 Airbus A350s at the time, across the A350-900 and A350-1000 variants, with options on 40 more, to be split between KLM and Air France according to the conditions of each market. At KLM, the A350 is to replace the Boeing 777-200ER and the Airbus A330-200 and A330-300, with deployment planned from 2026, which is the timetable now being met. According to that release, the new model burns 25 per cent less fuel and cuts its noise footprint by 40 per cent compared with the aircraft it replaces.

We can make our fleet significantly cleaner, quieter and more fuel-efficient with the A350s.

So said Marjan Rintel, KLM's chief executive, in that 2023 announcement. How many of the 50 aircraft on order will end up at KLM and how many at Air France is not fixed by either release.

What the test-flight release leaves out is told by another entry in KLM's newsroom, devoted to the series of Dutch masterpiece names its A350s will carry. The aircraft is configured with 331 seats: 34 in World Business Class, 26 in Premium Comfort and 271 in Economy. The business-class seats, however, will not be certified at launch, owing to what KLM describes as a revised interpretation of regulatory requirements by the aviation authorities; Premium Comfort will be available from day one. The same entry places the first commercial flight in September, with Toronto as the inaugural destination.

The aircraft entered Airbus's final assembly line in Toulouse on 3 April 2026, already wearing KLM's livery on its tail, and the airline spoke then of delivery "at the end of the summer". In that release KLM puts its planned fleet-renewal investment over the coming years at €7 billion and announces that the freighter version, the A350F, will join Martinair, the group's cargo carrier, in 2027. Air France-KLM, for its part, expects deliveries of the 50-aircraft order to be spread between 2026 and 2030.

According to Airbus's own figures, the A350 family comprises the A350-900, in service since January 2015, the A350-1000, since 2018, the ultra-long-range A350-900ULR and the A350F freighter. All are powered by Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines: the XWB-84 on the -900 and the XWB-97 on the -1000. Airbus gives the -900 a typical capacity of 300 to 350 passengers in three classes and a range of 8,600 nautical miles, about 15,750 km, and notes that more than 70 per cent of the airframe is made of advanced materials, 53 per cent of it carbon-fibre-reinforced polymer. As of November 2025 the family had accumulated more than 1,500 orders, more than 700 deliveries and 41 operators; KLM will be one more.

The Airbus A350 entry in this encyclopaedia records the model's history, and the aircraft it displaces at KLM, the Airbus A330 and the Boeing 777, have entries of their own. The A350's arrival in the Dutch fleet is, beyond a change of aircraft, a change of manufacturer for part of its long-haul operation: the 777-200ERs being retired are Boeings. What names the next ones will carry, and when they will arrive, is something the release does not say.

Main release: "Eerste KLM Airbus A350 maakt testvluchten", KLM, 10 September 2026. https://nieuws.klm.com/eerste-klm-airbus-a350-maakt-testvluchten/

Order release: "KLM to invest in cleaner, quieter and more fuel-efficient long-haul aircraft with an order of new Airbus A350s", KLM, 25 September 2023. https://news.klm.com/klm-to-invest-in-cleaner-quieter-and-more-fuel-efficient-long-haul-aircraft-with-an-order-of-new-airbus-a350s/

Cabin and names: "Dutch masterpieces take flight with KLM", KLM. https://news.klm.com/dutch-masterpieces-take-flight-with-klm/

Final assembly: "First KLM A350 moves to final assembly line", KLM, 3 April 2026. https://news.klm.com/first-klm-a350-moves-to-final-assembly-line/

Order timetable: "Air France-KLM Group will place an order for 50 Airbus A350 family aircraft…", Air France-KLM. https://www.airfranceklm.com/en/newsroom/air-france-klm-group-will-place-order-50-airbus-a350-family-aircraft-purchase-rights-40

Model data: "A350 Family", Airbus (https://www.airbus.com/en/products-services/commercial-aircraft/passenger-aircraft/a350-family) and "A350 Family Facts and Figures", Airbus, November 2025.

Model context: the Airbus A350 entry on Above Ten Thousand.