Cathay Pacific has begun its Airbus A350-900 operations to Auckland, becoming the first airline to first airline to fly the A350 to New Zealand.

The new aircraft replaces the A340-300 which has been flying the route since 1998.

Auckland is the third long-haul destination in the Cathay network to receive the A350, after Dusseldorf and London Gatwick. The airline will also deploy the new type on the Paris and Rome routes in the next few months, as well as to Tel Aviv and Vancouver in March 2017.

Cathay, which has five A350-900s in service, expects to have received all 22 on order by the end of 2017. It also has 26 A350-1000s on order.