Airbus is poised to hand over the first of A330-900 to launch operator TAP Air Portugal, as flight-testing gets underway of the smaller -800 variant.

TAP A330-900 toulouse

Speaking at the first flight of the smaller -800 today in Toulouse, A330 marketing chief Crawford Hamilton said the delivery of the first A330neo is imminent. The aircraft is parked at the delivery centre and will be handed over “in the coming days”, he says.

Airbus secured type certification for the Rolls-Royce Trent 7000-powered A330-900 in late September. The first aircraft was originally due for delivery to TAP in early 2018, but the flight-test programme was delayed, primarily due to hold-ups with the Trent 7000 engines.

Source: Cirium Dashboard