THE first Airbus Industrie A330 powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines landed at Kai Tak airport early yesterday morning.
The A330-300 is the first for Cathay Pacific Airways, which becomes the world's first airline to operate both the A330 and the larger A340 aircraft.
Cathay has placed firm orders for nine of the European consortium's twin-engine, wide-body jets. To date 16 have been delivered to six airlines since the plane first entered service at the beginning of last year.
In Asia, Malaysia Airlines and Thai Airways International have already added Pratt & Whitney-powered A330s to their fleets, while Dragonair and Garuda Indonesia also take delivery of Trent-powered versions this year.
Problems installing in-flight televisions in business class had delayed delivery by several days, but yesterday's flight from Toulouse headquarters went off without a hitch, a Cathay spokesman said.
The airline said it expects one of the first paying passengers on the 320-seat, two-class, A330 to be Governor Chris Patten. Mr Patten flies to Singapore on March 6, the day the aircraft is scheduled to go into service.