The Airbus A350 is a long-range, wide-body twin-engine jet airliner developed and produced by Airbus. The first A350 design proposed by Airbus in 2004, in response to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, would have been a development of the A330 with composite wings and new engines. As market support was inadequate, in 2006, Airbus switched to a clean-sheet "XWB" (eXtra Wide Body) design, powered by two Rolls-Royce Trent XWB turbofan engines. The prototype first flew on 14 June 2013 from Toulouse in France. Type certification from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) was obtained in September 2014, followed by certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) two months later. The A350 is the first Airbus aircraft largely made of carbon-fiber-reinforced polymers. It has a new fuselage designed around a nine-abreast economy cross-section, up from the eight-abreast A330/A340. It has a common type rating with the A330. The airliner has two variants: the A350-900 typically carries 300 to 350 passengers over a 15,000-kilometre (8,100-nautical-mile) range, and has a 283-tonne (617,300-pound) maximum takeoff weight (MTOW); the longer A350-1000 accommodates 350 to 410 passengers and has a maximum range of 16,100 km (8,700 nmi) and a 319 t (703,200 lb) MTOW. On 15 January 2015, the initial A350-900 entered service with Qatar Airways, followed by the A350-1000 on 24 February 2018 with the same launch customer. , Singapore Airlines is the largest operator with 61 A350-900 aircraft in its fleet. A350 orders stood at 925 aircraft, of which 522 had been delivered and all were in service with 40 operators. The global A350 fleet had completed more than 934,000 flights on more than 955 routes without accidents. It succeeds the A340 and competes against Boeing's large long-haul twinjets: the 787, the 777, and its successor, the 777X. Development Background and early designs Airbus initially rejected Boeing's claim that the Boeing 787 Dreamliner would be a serious threat to the Airbus A330, stating that the 787 was just a reaction to the A330 and that no response was needed. When airlines urged Airbus to provide a competitor, Airbus initially proposed the "A330-200Lite", a derivative of the A330 featuring improved aerodynamics and engines similar to those on the 787. The company planned to announce this version at the 2004 Farnborough Airshow, but did not proceed. On 16 September 2004, Airbus president and chief executive officer Noël Forgeard confirmed the consideration of a new project during a