Airbus Group SE Thursday completed the first flight of its newest long-haul plane and reaffirmed a commitment to deliver at least 50 planes of a sister model by year-end despite repeated delays.

The A350-1000 long-range plane, which typically will seat around 366 passengers, flew for more than four hours from Airbus's Toulouse, France, base. Airbus plans to begin customer deliveries of the plane in the second half of next year, a few months later than initially forecast. Delays in new plane programs aren't unusual.

The new jetliner competes with Boeing Co.'s popular 777 widebody jet. Boeing is working on an updated version, the 777X, which will seat 400 or more passengers and is due to enter service around the end of the decade.

The A350-1000 from Airbus is the European plane maker's longest still-in-production airliner at over 242 feet. It has a range of about 9,150 miles. The plane, powered by engines from Britain's Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC, has a $355.7 million sticker price, though airlines typically get discounts.

Fabrice Bré gier, head of Airbus commercial aircraft, also said Thursday the company would aim to deliver at least 50 of the slightly smaller, 325-seat A350-900 this year. The pledge was initially made in January but has been questioned because Airbus has been slow handing over planes.

The European plane maker has struggled with suppliers failing to deliver parts on time and internal issues. That has frustrated some airline customers who have had to alter schedule plans as they waited for the new jetliner to arrive.

Airbus had delivered only 30 of the planes in the first 10 months of the year. The company also is rushing to meet a wider full-year commitment to deliver a total of at least 670 planes, with more than 150 left to go in the last two months of 2016.

Airbus is considering building an even larger version of the A350 to battle Boeing's bigger 777, though it hasn't committed yet to launching that model. A smaller version has been put on ice amid slack demand.

Write to Robert Wall at robert.wall@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 24, 2016 20:45 ET (01:45 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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