Qatar Airways will take delivery of the first Airbus A350-1000 on February 20, with the advanced jet due to begin daily flights between Doha and London from February 24 as the QR15/QR16 service.

Speaking at a media event in Canberra to mark the launch of the airline's daily flights between Doha and the Australian capital, airline CEO His Excellency Akbar Al Baker confirmed that the A350-1000 "will be delivered on the 20th of this month."

The jet is the largest member of the Airbus A350 family, and Qatar Airways is its prestigious launch customer.

Al Baker has previously cited the "complex seat configuration" of the Qsuite business class suites (below) as delaying the hand-over from December 2017.

The Airbus A350-1000 is a 'stretch' of the A350 series, which carries more passengers than the A350-900 – in Qatar Airways' case, an extra 44 passengers – but over a slightly shorter range, making it a very flexible aircraft to suit the needs of qatar's growing network.

The twin-engine jet will contain 46 of the airline's flagship Qsuite business class suites, with the cabin divided into 22 forward-facing and 24 rear-facing business class suites...

... with the middle suites able to convert to double beds...

... or 'quad' suites.

There will also be 281 economy seats, for a total of 327 passengers.

Qatar Airways has signed up for 37 of the A350-1000s, but has yet to reveal which routes the jet will fly.

David Flynn travelled to Canberra as a guest of Qatar Airways