Airbus A350F

Updated: October 2026 – A black mask at the cockpit, softly curved wingtips, but not a single row of windows on the fuselage: if you come across an aircraft like that, you very likely have the Airbus A350F in your viewfinder. Airbus’s new widebody freighter first flew on September 29, 2026 and is in the middle of testing. On this page you learn how the A350F is built, who has ordered it, how it stacks up against the Boeing 777-8F and where you have a chance to see it.

What is the Airbus A350F?

The A350F is the freighter version of the A350 XWB family and is built by Airbus as a freighter from the factory. Earlier Airbus freighters such as the A300-600F or the A330-200F played in a smaller payload class, and in the conversion segment there are passenger-to-freighter versions like the A330-P2F. With the A350F, by contrast, Airbus is aiming directly at the segment of large long-haul freighters, which has been dominated by Boeing for years.

The technical basis is the A350-1000. The fuselage is shorter, though: Airbus quotes a length of 70.80 meters for the A350F, while the A350-1000 comes to almost 74 meters. The A350-900 is below both at 66.80 meters. The wingspan is the same on all three variants at 64.75 meters, and Airbus gives the height as 17.08 meters. Like the A350-1000, the freighter is powered by two Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97 engines – you can find more about the engine builder on the Rolls-Royce page.

According to the manufacturer, the A350F carries up to 111 tonnes of payload and flies up to around 8,700 kilometers. Airbus also stresses that more than 70 percent of the airframe is made of modern materials and that the maximum takeoff weight is clearly below that of the competition. According to Airbus, fuel burn and CO₂ emissions are up to 40 percent below the figures of the freighters the A350F aims to replace – that is a manufacturer claim that still has to be confirmed in scheduled operations.

The big cargo door: the heart of the A350F

What makes the A350F interesting for cargo airlines is above all the main deck cargo door. It sits in the rear fuselage behind the wing and, according to Airbus, has a clear opening width of 4.31 meters. According to the manufacturer, that makes it about 15 percent wider than the door of the Boeing 777F. Airbus advertises that even oversized cargo fits on board without being broken down.

The main deck has room for 30 loading positions, and the lower deck takes an additional 40 LD3 containers. According to Airbus, the cargo volume is around 11 percent above that of the 777F. For the crew there is a rest area with one seat and two bunks, and the air conditioning is adapted so that the airflows of the cargo compartments and the crew area stay separate.

The door is handy for spotters, because in side profile the large door outline behind the wing is a clear distinguishing feature against the passenger A350 and against converted freighters, whose door is usually in front of the wing.

How to recognize the A350F

Because the A350F is built on the A350 platform, it takes over the most important family features. Three steps are enough for a reliable identification.

In the end, as always, the registration confirms the type. Especially during the test phase, the test aircraft carry Airbus test registrations and a house livery. What the factory liveries of Airbus and Boeing look like is shown in the article House liveries of Airbus, Boeing and Embraer. General tips for telling the manufacturers apart are in Telling Airbus and Boeing apart, and the comparison of the passenger variants is in the article A350 or Boeing 787?.

Development: from launch to first flight

A freighter based on the A350 was discussed early on, but it only became concrete in July 2021: the Airbus board approved development of the A350F. At the end of 2021, Air Lease Corporation ordered as the first customer, followed shortly after by CMA CGM and, in 2022, Singapore Airlines among others.

Originally, the A350F was to enter service in 2025, and later 2026 was under discussion. In February 2025, Airbus postponed the program by a year. The reason given was problems with the delivery of fuselage parts. The launch customer Air Lease Corporation is no longer listed as an A350F customer in current order lists.

On September 29, 2026, the first prototype with manufacturer serial number MSN 700 took off from Toulouse for its first flight. According to Airbus, the flight lasted 4 hours and 10 minutes, reached 25,000 feet and served to check flight characteristics and basic systems. The second test aircraft, MSN 701, was still in final assembly at that point; Airbus announced its move to the paint shop for the following weeks. Airbus speaks of a flight test campaign of more than nine months.

Customers and launch operators

According to Airbus, there were 115 orders from 14 disclosed customers at the end of August 2026. For its freighter in the large freighter segment, Airbus cites a market share of up to 59 percent. According to available sources, the customers include:

• Singapore Airlines with its cargo division, one of the earliest customers
• CMA CGM Air Cargo, the air cargo arm of the French shipping company
• Air France and Martinair from the Air France-KLM group
• Atlas Air, which announced an order for 20 aircraft in March 2026
• Etihad with Etihad Cargo, Cathay Pacific with Cathay Cargo and Turkish Airlines with Turkish Cargo
• plus Starlux, Silk Way West and the Saudi lessor AviLease

Airbus had not officially confirmed who will actually take the first aircraft as of October 2026. Among the earliest customers are CMA CGM and Singapore Airlines. For the German-speaking region, Air France-KLM, Turkish Cargo and Etihad are the most interesting, because their freighters regularly serve European hubs.

A350F vs. Boeing 777-8F

The A350F enters a market that Boeing has dominated for years with the 777F and the 747 freighter family. The direct rival is the Boeing 777-8F, the freighter version of the 777-8 from the 777X family. Boeing launched it in January 2022 with Qatar Airways as launch customer, and Lufthansa Cargo has ordered as well. According to current reports, Boeing does not expect first deliveries before 2028.

Feature	Airbus A350F	Boeing 777-8F
Basis	A350-1000	777X (777-8)
Length	70.80 m	around 70.9 m
Engines	2 × Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97	2 × GE GE9X
Wingtips	fixed, curved upward	folding
First flight	September 29, 2026	still open (as of October 2026)
Early customers	incl. CMA CGM, Singapore Airlines	Qatar Airways (launch customer), Lufthansa Cargo

Airbus argues mainly with the lower weight and lower fuel burn: the A350F is said to be clearly lighter than comparable competing types and, as the first new freighter, to fully meet the current ICAO CO₂ requirements. With the 777-8F, Boeing relies on the proven kinship with the 777F, which many cargo airlines already operate.

The background to the duel: for newly built aircraft, stricter ICAO CO₂ limits take effect from the end of the decade, which older freighter types like the 777F in its current form do not meet. So today’s standard freighters need successors, and the A350F and 777-8F are fighting for exactly that succession. Alongside them, converted freighters like the Boeing 777-300ERSF remain a cheaper alternative for many airlines.

Risk of confusion in cargo traffic

You can find an overview of all common freighter types in the article Recognizing cargo aircraft.

Where you can see the A350F

As of October 2026, the A350F is purely a test aircraft. By far the best place is therefore Toulouse-Blagnac Airport, where Airbus does the final assembly of the A350 and starts flight testing. Around the aviation museum Aeroscopia – you can find the spot under Aeroscopia at Toulouse-Blagnac – you have a view of the runways where test aircraft take off and land. How to plan a spotting trip to Toulouse is shown in the guide Plane spotting at Toulouse-Blagnac.

Test flights follow no public schedule. How to find them on the radar anyway is explained in the article Tracking test flights, factory flights and first flights. The basics of live tracking are in the guide to flight tracking with ADS-B.

Once the A350F is in scheduled service, the action shifts to the big cargo hubs. Realistic candidates are airports that the ordering airlines already serve with freighters today:

Location	Why it is interesting
Frankfurt	Largest cargo hub in Germany, many international cargo airlines
Liège	Important European cargo airport with lots of night traffic
Amsterdam Schiphol	Home of Martinair, the cargo operator of the Air France-KLM group
Leipzig/Halle and Cologne/Bonn	Major cargo locations, especially for express traffic

In Frankfurt, the Zeppelinheim viewing platform is a good starting point, in Belgium the spotter spot at Liège Airport and in Amsterdam the spotter area at the Polderbaan. There are in-depth guides to Frankfurt, Schiphol and Leipzig/Halle. Which routes the first A350Fs actually fly is up to the operators – do not rely on forecasts here, but check current schedules.

Photo tips for freighters and test aircraft

Freighters and test aircraft have their own pitfalls. These points help you when you get the A350F in front of your camera.

What gear you really need is in the plane spotting equipment checklist. And if you visit Toulouse, you should also keep an eye out for the passenger variants A350-900 and A350-1000, which are regularly seen there as well.

Conclusion

The A350F is the most important new freighter Airbus has built so far. It takes the proven A350-1000 as its basis, shortens the fuselage, drops the windows and puts a particularly wide door behind the wing. With the first flight in late September 2026, the program has finally picked up speed after delays; the race against the Boeing 777-8F to succeed the 777F has now properly begun.