Now it is finally official Emirates' A350 will arrive in March in Bologna (and we will be on board)

In recent days, Emirates' A350 took off from Dubai for Scotland, specifically Edinburgh Airport., the first new model aircraft to enter the EK fleet in 17 years. Certainly it was a tiring and delayed debut, but finally the big day came.

Since January 3, the new plane has been connecting Dubai with Edinburgh every day, and there are now a total of 3 routes where it is used. Emirates' A350 flight EK23 departs Dubai at 14:50 local time and arrives in Edinburgh at 19:05 local time. The return flight EK24 leaves Edinburgh at 8:40 p.m. local time and arrives in Dubai at 8:05 a.m. local time the next day.

Kuwait and Bahrain the other destinations

Last January 8, Emirates' Airbus A350 entered service in Kuwait and Bahrain, the second and third destinations to be served by the airline's new aircraft:

• Kuwait: Emirates' A350 operates on flights EK853 and EK854. EK 853 departs Dubai at 01:25h and arrives in Kuwait at 02:15h. The return flight, EK 854, departs Kuwait at 03:40 and arrives in Dubai at 06:25h (all times are local).
• Bahrain: Emirates' A350 will operate on two of the three daily flights to the Kingdom: EK837/838 and EK839/840. EK 837 departs Dubai at 8:20 am, arriving in Bahrain at 8:40 am. The return flight, EK 838, departs Bahrain at 10:00 am and arrives in Dubai at 12:15 pm. The second flight operated by the Airbus A350, EK 839, takes off at 16h00 and arrives in Bahrain at 16h20. EK 840 departs Bahrain at 5:45 p.m., arriving in Dubai at 8:00 p.m. (all times are local).

Two "very short" routes where until now the 777/300 was used. These first A350s in fact were defined by the company's management as machines for short and medium haul and to those destinations where the full passenger capacity of the 777 is not needed, but without sacrificing cargo capacity.

Emirates' A350 what to know

Emirates' A350 features the latest cabin "innovations," but at the moment it will not have a First Class cabin, something that to date was present on over 90% in the fleet. Unfortunately, there are no major innovations in terms of cabins, in fact they are set up with the same business canine present on refurbished 777s, the same premium economy seat that is on the rest of the fleet and economy found on newer aircraft.

EK's A350 offers three cabin classes, accommodating 312 passengers in 32 lie-flat next-generation Business Class seats, 21 Premium Economy seats and 259 generous Economy Class seats. A second version of the A350s is planned, EK has ordered more than 60 of them, which will be set up for premium routes, will be completely different, but there is no debut forecast yet and will have, probably, lse same solutions that will adopt the 777/9.

When Emirates' A350 arrives in Italy.

The first Italian route to be served with these machines will be Bologna, which falls perfectly into the type of destination where Emirates had the least need for seats on board, but where it definitely did not want to lose cargo space, given that supercars heading all over the world, and not only that, depart from the Motor Valley airport.

Bologna's Marconi will have another record, it will be the first Italian airport to have premium economy, in contrast it will also be the only Italian airport where EK will not offer its First Class.

The debut is confirmed, barring last minute machine changes, for March 15 e As I have written several times, we will be there.

In conclusion

I could have moved my reservation to Edinburgh to be on the first flight ever, but I preferred to go for the "made in Italy" one. Of course the enthusiasm for this plane waned when the outfitting was confirmed-it is identical to the new 777s-but it will still be a historic day for an AVgeek like me.