Cathay Pacific Airways, an international airline based in Hong Kong and a member of the oneworld alliance, has selected Airbus to provide Flight Hour Services (FHS) components support for its new fleet of 48 A350 XWBs on order (22 A350-900s plus 26 A350-1000s). The long-term agreement covers guaranteed spare parts availability, maintenance and logistics services at Cathay Pacific’s main base and selected outstations as well as flight simulator support. The agreement also covers Integrated Material Services (IMS) – whereby the purchasing and planning of the airline’s A350 XWB expendables inventories are outsourced to Airbus’ dedicated materials management subsidiary, Satair Group.

Christopher Gibbs, Engineering Director of Cathay Pacific Airways said: “Ensuring a smooth entry-into-service of our new A350 XWB widebody fleet – with the first aircraft now undergoing assembly in Toulouse – will be paramount to Cathay Pacific’s success in our highly competitive and fast growing market.” He added: “To help us to continue this success, we are confident that Airbus’ tailored and cost-effective FHS support services will enable us to deliver the highest performance of our A350 operations from day one.”

Didier Lux, Head of Customer Services at Airbus said: “We are very pleased that Cathay Pacific, one of the world’s foremost international carriers and a longtime customer of Airbus, has entrusted its A350 component support to Airbus.” He added: “This significant endorsement by Cathay Pacific further reinforces Airbus’ position in the services market, and recognizes our unique capability as an aircraft manufacturer to offer world-class Flight Hour Services.”

As of end of February, the A350 XWB programme had won 777 firm orders from 41 customers worldwide – of which around 40 percent are destined for customers in the Asia-Pacific region. Cathay Pacific represents one fifth of the A350 XWB total orders from Asia-Pacific. With this latest agreement, Airbus FHS contracts have now been selected to cover more than 240 aircraft, ranging from the A320, A330, A380 to the A350 XWB.

Airbus press release