The first Airbus A350F freighter prototype lifted off from Toulouse at 10:31 local time on 29 September, opening a nine-month test and certification campaign that Airbus aims to close by the middle of next year with simultaneous EASA and FAA approval.

The MSN700 prototype, carrying the test registration F-WXLD, departed with a planned sortie of around four hours and a return to Toulouse. A Dassault Falcon chase aircraft accompanied it. Airbus live-streamed the departure.

According to details from the livestream, the crew agreed with air traffic control on 28 September to keep the aircraft in the area around Toulouse, Bordeaux and the Bay of Biscay. Two pilots and three test engineers ran final cross checks before departure, covering computer systems and the flight plan.

The flight marks the most visible step yet toward market entry for Airbus's clean-sheet answer to the Boeing 777F, and it lands in a freighter market where capacity decisions made now will shape airline fleets for the next two decades.

What changed from the passenger version

Julien Puyou, Airbus head of widebody programmes, outlined the engineering choices that separate the A350F from the passenger A350. "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," he said.

The shortened nose was a performance decision, not a styling one. Puyou said the design team made the changes "to optimise the balance of the aircraft in the air and so to optimise its performance that's why we made the nose shorter".

The main deck cargo door measures 175 inches wide — which Puyou called "the largest in the industry". Positioning it behind the wing rather than forward was deliberate. "And we put the cargo door behind the wing to optimise the loading," he said.

The layout has an operational payoff for cargo handlers and airlines. Puyou confirmed that Airbus wanted operators to be able to simultaneously load "the three cargo areas – the main deck and the two lower deck cargo areas so they are completely unconstrained on their operations". Faster, parallel turnarounds translate directly into aircraft utilisation and unit economics for freighter operators.

Certification timeline and order book

Airbus has now secured orders for 115 A350 freighters from at least 14 customers. The second flight-test aircraft is already in the final assembly line cycle and should fly before the end of this year, the manufacturer confirmed.

The airframer is pursuing concurrent certification from EASA and the FAA under the latest Amendment 27 safety regulations, and said earlier this year that certification is targeted by the middle of next year.

For carriers and forwarders, that timeline matters. Each A350F delivered adds main-deck capacity on long-haul trade lanes, and the order book of 115 units signals a substantial wave of widebody freighter capacity entering service from 2027 onward — with implications for belly-versus-freighter rate dynamics as e-commerce and general cargo demand compete for space.

The certification clock is now running. If Airbus holds to its mid-2027 target, the first A350F deliveries would arrive as airlines press ahead with fleet renewal across the Atlantic and Pacific, and the freighter market gains its first new-build widebody competitor to the 777F program in years.