In March 2019, Lufthansa Group placed an order for 20 Airbus A350-900s and 20 Boeing 787-9s. Well, Lufthansa has just announced that each of these orders has been increased by 25%, and some of these planes will even be delivered in the coming months.
In this post:
Lufthansa orders five A350s & five 787s
Lufthansa has placed an order for a further 10 wide body aircraft, intended to accelerate the modernization of the German flag carrier’s fleet. Lufthansa’s order consists of:
- Five additional Boeing 787-9s, to be delivered by the first half of 2022; these are planes that have already been manufactured and which were ordered by other airlines, but which Lufthansa will be taking over
- Five additional Airbus A350-900s, to be delivered in 2027 and 2028; Lufthansa already had 40 A350s on order, and will continue to take delivery of these planes in the meantime, so these are just being added to the end of the delivery queue
These 10 planes will specifically be operated by Lufthansa, rather than another Lufthansa Group airline (with the previous order it wasn’t specified who would operate the planes, so some will go to Austrian and SWISS). They will be used to replace existing four-engine Airbus A340 aircraft.
The previous aircraft order was for Lufthansa Group airlines
Lufthansa now has a total of 25 Boeing 787-9s and 45 Airbus A350-900s on order. Lufthansa has also restructured deliveries for existing aircraft orders, though we don’t know the details beyond that.
Lufthansa credits this order to “anticyclical opportunities,” claiming that the airline has “a responsibility to the environment.” As Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr describes this:
“Even in these challenging times, we are continuing to invest in a more modern, more efficient and a lower emission Lufthansa Group fleet. At the same time, we are pushing ahead with the modernization of our long-haul fleet even faster than planned prior to the coronavirus pandemic due to anticyclical opportunities. The new aircraft are the most modern of their kind. We want to further expand our global leadership role, among other things, with cutting-edge premium products and a state-of-the-art fleet – especially because we have a responsibility to the environment.”
Lufthansa Airbus A350-900
Cool, Lufthansa will fly 787s in a matter of months!
While we knew that Lufthansa would eventually fly Boeing 787s, it’s pretty exciting that the airline will be flying 787s in the coming months. As an avgeek I can’t wait to see a Lufthansa 787 in the new livery, and also to see how Lufthansa will configure these planes.
Lufthansa Boeing 787-9
Speaking of configurations, I’m curious if Lufthansa’s new business class will debut on these upcoming 787s. Back in 2017 Lufthansa revealed its new business class product, which still isn’t actually available on any planes.
We recently learned that Lufthansa planned to debut its new business class in 2022, which suggests that the airline will install these seats on 787s and/or A350s, since 777Xs won’t be delivered until late 2023 at the earliest.
I wonder if these upcoming 787s will get the new seats, or if these are delivered a bit too soon, and if the new seats aren’t quite ready yet.
Lufthansa’s new business class cabin
Also, it sure would be awesome if some of these 787s featured first class, though that seems highly likely. However, fortunately some future delivery A350s may feature first class.
Bottom line
Lufthansa has placed an order for 10 additional wide body aircraft. This includes five 787-9s, to be delivered in the coming months (the planes have already been manufactured, and were intended for other airlines), as well as five A350-900s (which will be delivered in several years).
I’m excited to see Lufthansa flying 787s, and mainly I’m curious to see if these planes get the new business class seats.
What do you make of Lufthansa’s wide body aircraft order, and do you think the upcoming 787s will feature new business class seats?
Compared to my pathetic, unexciting BC flights on Iberia ORD-MAD; remembering the favorable F&B product and competent service on Lufthansa BC, I intend to return to Lufthansa and fly their superb BC ORD-FRA-MAD, where I will have no choice but to rely upon IB for my intra-country connecting flight. LU's BC from FRA not great seats, but good meals and service.
Funny, how even TAP offers better F&B in newer planes than IB. But...
Compared to my pathetic, unexciting BC flights on Iberia ORD-MAD; remembering the favorable F&B product and competent service on Lufthansa BC, I intend to return to Lufthansa and fly their superb BC ORD-FRA-MAD, where I will have no choice but to rely upon IB for my intra-country connecting flight. LU's BC from FRA not great seats, but good meals and service.
Funny, how even TAP offers better F&B in newer planes than IB. But nobody compares to Lufthansa, but perhaps for the same family of carriers, SWISS and Austrian.
travel will come back - like never before !!! (problems will be for Dubai, etc. - as leading transit hub - it is also a "mixing station" for viruses and bacteria from about every corner of the world)....
There's a report these five Dreamliners are going to be allocated to Lufthansa and will feature direct aisle access from every seat, however to be based on the current design to bridge the introduction until the real new business class is revealed. Learn more here (though it's in German): https://www.aero.de/news-39551/Lufthansa-Dreamliner-kommen-mit-aufgewerteter-Business-Class.html
@Donato
Lufthansa Technik also works as a contractor to offer the same inspection services to other airlines. Therefore it's highly likely that they have already inspected these white tails anyway.
Let's hope they get the new C product, the old one ("footsie") was dated from day one, therefore I fear they go for a dated product again.
Some of the 777X orders will be converted to freighters and bought for Swiss, I wouldn’t be too surprised if the additional 787s offset some 777X cancellations. Spohr said in Bild, LH will focus more on premium eco seats, reduce its total number of business class seats, and “modifies” first class (whatever this means). He also stated that 10-20% of corporate travel won’t return.
Are we sure that Lufthansa will use these Boeing 787s? It is entirely possible that these white tails will end up in Swiss or Austrian colors.
The "new" business class cabin already looks dated and uninteresting compared to competing products.
i previously read that LH has engineers onsite full time while their airframes are built. This practice was to keep everybody fully attentive to their job. Buying white tails is totally against their previous policy, all for a bargain?
In fact, I think they will unveil a new-new-new Business Class toward the end of this year, which will obsolete the, umm, to-be-installed Business Class (which will now become to-not-be-installed-ever Business class). The new-new-new one will be available sometime before 2100, I think. Based on this awesome product, Skytrax will award them the first ever 6-star airline rating, because it's super duper awesome.
“it sure would be awesome if some of these 787s featured first class, though that seems highly likely.”
Unlikely?
However *unlikely* I think you mean instead of *likely*
Will any of these have First?