Just Weeks After Launch, Cathay Pacific Takes the A350-1000 off the Washington Route

Just a few weeks after launching its newest aircraft on its newest route, Cathay Pacific is switching things up. The new A350-1000, which operated on the longest route in Cathay's network — between Washington, DC and Hong Kong — will soon be moving to operate a different route. Instead of offering the new plane from Washington- Dulles, it'll turn instead to a city on the other side of the country: San Francisco.

As Airlineroute reports, Cathay will be moving its new A350-1000 to operate on the San Francisco (SFO) to Hong Kong (HKG) route as of Nov. 1, 2018. At that point, the Washington, DC (IAD) to HKG route will be operated by the A350-900.

Cathay's A350-1000 features three cabins: business, premium economy and economy. In the business-class cabin, you'll find 46 seats in a 1-2-1 configuration. You can read a full review of the business-class experience on board the plane in JT Genter's review. You'll also find 32 premium economy seats in a 2-4-2 configuration and 256 economy seats in a 3-3-3 layout.

How does that compare to the shorter -900? The -1000 offers a total of 54 additional seats over the -900, often referred to as A359, which also features a three-cabin configuration with business, premium economy and economy. There are 38 reverse-herringbone business seats, 28 premium economy seats and 214 economy seats, all in the same configuration as the larger airplane. Check out Zach Honig's review of the business-class experience on the A359 here.

On Oct. 30, the IAD-HKG route is showing on the airline's site as being operated by a A350-1000 — however, the next date of the flight on Nov. 2 shows it as operated by a A350-900. As you'd expect, the SFO-HKG is showing as being operated with an A350-1000 as of that date.

Cathay has ordered 20 A350-1000s and is expected to take delivery of them through 2018 and beyond. It currently flies 22 A350-900s, and has six more on order.