KLM’s First Airbus A350-900 Completes Its Maiden Flight From Toulouse

On September 4, 2026, KLM’s first Airbus A350-900 flew for the first time, departing Toulouse-Blagnac shortly after 12:30 p.m. local time and landing back there roughly 94 minutes later. The jet, still wearing the test registration F-WZNM, is the aircraft KLM has named The Night Watch, after Rembrandt’s painting.

What the flight actually tested

This was not a new-model first flight. The A350-900 has been flying since 2013 and entered airline service in 2015. This flight was a production test of one individual airframe, the standard check every new-build jet flies before Airbus hands it to a customer.

Test pilots ran the aircraft’s systems, engines and handling over southwestern France and the Bay of Biscay before returning to Toulouse. According to KLM, the airline expects delivery to follow shortly, after which the aircraft will be repainted and re-registered PH-ZNA.

Airbus builds every A350 at the same Toulouse final assembly line, regardless of which airline ordered it. A customer’s aircraft only gets its named livery and cabin interior after this factory test flight confirms the airframe performs as designed, which is why The Night Watch still wore an unpainted Airbus test registration on September 4.

A slipping debut on Amsterdam-Toronto

The Night Watch is the first of 22 A350-900s KLM has ordered as part of a fleet renewal that will eventually retire the airline’s Airbus A330s and Boeing 777-200ERs. KLM says the jet burns roughly 25 percent less fuel than the 777-200ER it replaces.

The order sits inside a wider Air France-KLM commitment of 50 A350-family jets from Airbus, split between the two carriers, with deliveries continuing through 2030. KLM plans to use the type on long, thin routes like Toronto before rolling it out more broadly across its intercontinental network.

KLM originally planned to launch the aircraft on Amsterdam-Schiphol to Toronto Pearson in September. That slipped to October 9, and industry schedule data tracked by AeroRoutes now shows the debut pushed again to October 23, initially five times weekly.

The A350 will not arrive with a working business class. As AeroCorner reported in August, all 34 World Business Class suites on KLM’s first A350s are sealed off pending seat certification, a paperwork snag tied to how regulators are now interpreting installation requirements for that seat model.

How the program got here

Simple Flying first reported the maiden flight’s timing and route. KLM has not said what caused the additional two-week slip to October 23.