Discover Airlines is Lufthansa Group’s long haul leisure carrier based in Germany. The airline has been growing in recent years, as Lufthansa Group (unsurprisingly) sees a lot of potential with its low cost operations. As a matter of fact, Lufthansa Group seems committed to growing everything except its flagship brand, Lufthansa.
In 2024, we first learned that the Discover Airlines fleet will grow in the coming years, and that we’ll eventually see the introduction of a new business class product. Then in 2025, we learned that the airline would start to acquire Airbus A350s. We now have a lot more details about what that will look like, including the timeline, as well as the first routes to be operated by the plane.
Discover Airlines modernizing long haul fleet with A350s
Discover Airlines has plans to acquire a total of 13 Airbus A350-900s. This will be a two-step process:
- In 2027 and 2028, the airline will take over four former Lufthansa A350-900s, as those will gradually be put into service
- In 2029 and beyond, the airline will take delivery of nine factory fresh A350-900s, all of which were part of a larger Lufthansa Group order
For context, Discover Airlines’ long haul fleet currently consists of 13 Airbus A330s — that’s now limited to the A330-300 variant, as the A330-200 variant has just been retired.
The current expectation is that the first former Lufthansa A350 will join the fleet in June 2027. It will initially operate short haul routes for crew familiarization, before flying long haul from Frankfurt (FRA) to Calgary (YYC) and Orlando (MCO).
The second A350 will then join the fleet in December 2027, with service on the plane being added to San Jose (SJO) and Belize City (BZE). The third and fourth A350 will then join the fleet in the summer of 2028.
By mid-2028, Discover Airlines expects its long haul fleet to grow to 20 aircraft, which includes the four former Lufthansa A350s, as well as some additional former Lufthansa A330s that will be added to the fleet.
It’s worth remembering that Lufthansa is the least profitable airline of Lufthansa Group. Rather than addressing that directly, Lufthansa Group’s solution to this issue is to continue outsourcing flying. For example, Lufthansa is about to drop flights to Seattle (SEA), as those will instead be operated by Discover Airlines. So it really shows you what a core part of Lufthansa’s plan this subsidiary is.
Discover Airlines isn’t the only Lufthansa Group leisure subsidiary getting A350s. SWISS’ leisure subsidiary, Edelweiss Air, is fully refreshing its long haul fleet, replacing A340-300s with A350-900s. In Edelweiss’ case, those are former LATAM jets that were retired early. These planes will also soon get new interiors, and the first aircraft should be retrofitted with all-new cabins in the coming months.
What to expect onboard Discover Airlines A350s
In typical Lufthansa Group fashion, Discover Airlines has acquired most of its aircraft simply by being given Lufthansa planes as they’ve been retired. So most of Discover Airlines’ A330s have the typical “old” Lufthansa business class, in a 2-2-2 configuration.
So you might be thinking that these initial four A350s that Discover Airlines is getting also have those interiors, given that most Lufthansa A350s also have business class seats in a 2-2-2 configuration.
However, not surprisingly, there’s another angle here. In 2021, Lufthansa opportunistically picked up four ex-Philippine Airlines A350s, as the carrier was going through a reorganization. Lufthansa maintained the cabin interiors, which funny enough, actually elevated Lufthansa’s business class experience considerably, given that these planes have Thompson Aero Vantage XL seats.
There was always the question of what Lufthansa would eventually do with these planes, so it’s not surprising that they’re now going to a different subsidiary. Meanwhile Lufthansa’s A350s with the old business class are all eventually going to be reconfigured with Allegris cabins. So when these four special A350s are taken over by Discover Airlines, you can expect that interiors will be maintained.
Now, what about those nine factory fresh A350s that will join the fleet starting in 2029? We don’t yet know what we can expect from those interiors. From a standardization standpoint, I suppose it’s possible that the airline gets the same business class you’ll find with Lufthansa’s A350 Allegris business class and SWISS Senses’ A350 business class.
However, what’s interesting here is that Discover Airlines is also rolling out a new business class product on its existing A330s. This is an off the shelf product, which is probably smart from the company’s perspective, given all the certification issues we’ve seen over time. So I suppose it’s possible that this will also be introduced on the A350s… we’ll see!
Bottom line
Discover Airlines will be modernizing its long haul fleet, as the airline will eventually take delivery of 13 Airbus A350-900s. In 2027 and 2028, we’ll see the airline acquire four Lufthansa A350s, and specifically, the planes that are former Philippine Airlines aircraft. Then in 2029 and beyond, we’ll see the airline get nine factory fresh A350s, part of the larger Lufthansa Group order.
This represents a major fleet modernization for the airline, and it’ll be interesting to see how this all plays out, especially when it comes to the brand new planes. Between this and the existing A330s getting new cabins, the Discover Airlines passenger experience is getting a nice boost.
What do you make of Discover Airlines acquiring Airbus A350s?
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