While nonstop flights are the focus of current operations, Ethiopian Airlines operates a stopping service between Addis Ababa and Washington Dulles via Rome Fiumicino due to payload restrictions caused by Addis Ababa’s high elevation. This route is scheduled at up to 17 hours and 10 minutes in October.
Other long nonstop routes flown by the A350-1000 include Dallas/Fort Worth to Hong Kong (16 hours 40 minutes) with Cathay Pacific and several other lengthy services by Qatar Airways and Cathay Pacific connecting Doha or Hong Kong to cities such as Houston, Los Angeles, New York JFK, Chicago O'Hare, Toronto, Miami, Boston, and San Francisco.
Among airlines outside Qatar Airways and Cathay Pacific operating long-haul flights with the A350-1000 in October:
- Etihad flies from Abu Dhabi to Atlanta in about 15 hours 30 minutes.
- British Airways’ longest routes are from Tokyo Haneda or Hong Kong back to London Heathrow at up to 14 hours 50 minutes each.
- Japan Airlines connects New York JFK back to Tokyo Haneda in about 14 hours 35 minutes.
- Ethiopian Airlines schedules Washington Dulles back to Addis Ababa at around 13 hours 15 minutes.
- French bee flies Reunion back to Paris Orly in just under twelve hours.
- Virgin Atlantic’s longest route is London Heathrow to Los Angeles at approximately eleven hours twenty minutes.
- Air Caraïbes operates Paris Orly to Cayenne at just over nine hours.
British Airways previously flew shorter routes via Russian airspace before Russia’s war on Ukraine forced detours over China or Alaska for flights returning from Asia.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Doha to Dammam represents the shortest commercial A350-1000 route globally. The distance is just 122 nautical miles (226 kilometers), blocked at one hour. In October only one scheduled flight—on October 25—will use Qatar Airways’ highest-capacity twinjet configuration on this sector: QR1152 departs Doha at 14:20 arriving in Dammam at 15:20; QR1153 returns from Dammam at 16:50 arriving back in Doha at 17:50. Most travelers on this short segment continue their journeys onward to or from South Asia.