KLM’s First Airbus A350 Is Due to Carry Passengers on October 30, With Business Class Still Closed

KLM is scheduled to fly its first Airbus A350-900 passenger service on October 30, 2026, as KL691 from Amsterdam Schiphol to Toronto Pearson. Its 34 World Business Class seats will not be available, because they are still not certified.

Flightradar24 listed the aircraft, PH-ZNA, on KL691 with a 1:30 p.m. scheduled departure, an estimated departure of 1:41 p.m. and a 4:40 p.m. scheduled arrival, all local times. The flight had not left when this story was written, around midday in Amsterdam, and the front page of KLM’s newsroom carried no announcement of it.

The return, KL692, is listed by Simple Flying at 6:55 p.m. from Toronto. The same report says the jet, named The Night Watch after the Rembrandt painting, has so far been used for crew training and testing, including round trips to Stavanger, Norway.

A date that kept moving

KLM said in June that the first passenger flight would come in September, and Gate Checked reported September 29 that July. By the time AeroCorner covered the maiden flight in early September, schedule data pointed to October 23, after an earlier slip to October 9.

Aeroroutes reported the move to October 30 on September 22. Its October 15 listing keeps that date, with five flights a week and a daily A350 from March 3, 2027.

Five a week means not every KL691 is an A350. Flightradar24’s forward schedule shows the type on November 6 but a Boeing 787-10 on November 7, so travelers who want the new jet should check the aircraft on their date.

What passengers can actually book

KLM lists 331 seats on the aircraft: 271 in Economy, 26 in Premium Comfort and 34 in World Business Class. With the front cabin closed, that leaves 297 seats to sell.

Runway Girl Network reported on October 6 that KLM’s booking engine offered only Economy and Premium Comfort on the Toronto flight. It also said cloth placards on the business seats keep everyone off them, crew included, until certification comes through.

Gate Checked reports that business class bookings will have to wait until early 2027, though the KLM releases we read give no date. SeatCompare says KLM has said anyone holding a business booking on an affected flight will be moved into Premium Comfort.

The closure reaches staff too. aeroTELEGRAPH reported in August that crew positioning to another station normally can use a business seat, and that the cabin crew union VNC said KLM must justify any switch to Premium Comfort. We found no report of how that was settled.

What KLM says about the certification

AeroCorner reported the delay in August: KLM blames a revised interpretation of regulatory requirements by the aviation authorities. The newer detail is KLM’s wording on October 2: EASA has approved the test results for the seats, so the certification process can begin.

That wording describes a start rather than a finish, although Gate Checked describes the seats as in final certification. The seat is not an unknown design: Runway Girl Network says it is based on Stelia’s Opera platform, and Gate Checked says that seat is already on most of Air France’s A350-900s.

KLM has not said which requirement was reinterpreted in the releases we read. Runway Girl Network reports that EASA has accepted an industry deviation on neck injury test criteria, and quotes SAE seat committee chair Rayk Hey on an updated approval covering shoulder belts, but we could not establish that either applies to KLM’s seat.

How far the empty cabin could travel

KLM said in June that the seats would be unavailable when its first two aircraft enter service, while aeroTELEGRAPH’s August report said the airline expected three. Gate Checked expects the second A350 before the end of 2026 and the third around March 2027.

The A350 has more routes waiting. Aeroroutes’ October 15 listing has Montreal from December 14 to January 1, after an earlier November 30 start, then Kilimanjaro and Dar es Salaam from December 15, Zanzibar from December 20 and Nairobi from January 5, 2027.

KLM says the A350 burns about 25% less fuel than previous-generation aircraft, with a noise footprint about 40% smaller. Gate Checked says the type is expected to replace A330s and some 777-200ERs.