On July 6, the first production Airbus A330neo landed at Atlanta’s Hartsfield International Airport, the last stop on a global route-proving tour that has taken the aircraft to 15 cities on five continents in 19 days. The aircraft took off from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport after less than 24 hours in the Windy City, and departed Atlanta the next day for Toulouse, to conclude a tour that has spanned 23,000 nautical miles and nearly 150 flight hours. A final step in the aircraft certification process, these test flights, also known as function and reliability tests, included ETOPS (Extended-range Twin-engine Operational Performance Standards) missions, landing at diversion airports and testing airport handling services.
The A330neo used for the route proving is the first A330-900 production aircraft and sports the livery of TAP Air Portugal, the A330neo launch operator.