Airbus's first A350 freighter prototype lifted off from Toulouse at 10:31 local time, opening a nine-month test and certification campaign the manufacturer wants to close by the middle of next year.

The MSN700 aircraft, registered F-WXLD and accompanied by a Dassault Falcon chase plane, is flying a roughly four-hour sortie over the region between Toulouse, Bordeaux and the Bay of Biscay, under an airspace agreement reached with air traffic control on 28 September. The flight was live-streamed by Airbus, and the crew of two pilots and three test engineers completed final cross-checks of computer systems and the flight plan before departure. The prototype is due back in Toulouse at the end of the sortie.

For cargo operators, the significance lies in what the aircraft will offer once certified. The A350F is derived from the passenger A350-1000, but Airbus made deliberate structural changes to optimise it for freight work.

"To build the A350 freighter we took the A350-1000 and we shortened it a bit in the front part and we put a cargo door behind the wing," said Julien Puyou, Airbus head of widebody programmes.

He explained that shortening the nose was done to "optimise the balance of the aircraft in the air and so to optimise its performance". The shortened forward fuselage shifts the aircraft's centre of gravity to improve efficiency in cargo configuration, a design choice that distinguishes the A350F from simple passenger-to-freighter conversions.

The main deck cargo door, positioned behind the wing, measures 175 inches wide, which Puyou described as "the largest in the industry". Placing it aft of the wing rather than forward serves a specific operational purpose: "we put the cargo door behind the wing to optimise the loading," he said.

The layout allows ground crews to work all three cargo compartments at once. Airbus wanted operators to be able to load "the three cargo areas – the main deck and the two lower deck cargo areas so they are completely unconstrained on their operations," Puyou confirmed.

That simultaneity matters for turnaround times on freighter networks, where every minute on the ground erodes the economics of express and e-commerce operations that increasingly drive widebody freighter demand.

The certification schedule is tight but clear. The MSN700 will now lead a nine-month test and certification campaign, with a second prototype already in the final assembly line and due to fly before the end of this year, Airbus confirmed.

The airframer is pursuing simultaneous certification from EASA and the FAA under the latest Amendment 27 safety regulations, a dual-track approach intended to let airlines on both sides of the Atlantic put the type into revenue service without a regulatory gap between jurisdictions.

Airbus indicated earlier this year that certification is targeted for the middle of next year, which would keep first deliveries on course and give freighter operators their first all-new large widebody freighter design in years — with entry into service following shortly after regulators sign off.