Lufthansa fleet renewal – A350s and 777-9Xs on the way

Lufthansa has confirmed today that it is continuing its long term fleet renewal for the main fleet, with an order from both of the major manufacturers

The order will be comprised of:

• 34 Boeing 777-9X aircraft
• 25 Airbus A350-900 aircraft

The fleet will be phased in from 2016. There are additional option of 30 aircraft from each supplier, with the ability to chop and change as required on the options within the families.

The aim of these nice new planes is to reduce costs of operating, so for new plane to operate, older planes must be withdrawn – with older Airbus A340-300s and Boeing 747-400s to be withdrawn as the new fleet is drawn in. The older Airbus/Boeing aircraft will be withdrawn by 2025.

This will help reduce maintenance and fuel costs.

The list cost of this order is €14Billion – although its important to think that very few airlines actually pay the list price for an aircraft, and discounting is the order of the day.

Lufthansa’s long haul passenger fleet is split between Airbus and Boeing families consisting of:
– 18 Airbus A330-300
– 48 Airbus A340 (-300 and -600)
– 10 Airbus A380
– 22 Boeing 747-400
– 9 Boeing 747-8

These numbers exclude Swiss International’s fleet (31 Long haul aircraft) and Austrian Airlines (a fleet of 12)

Looking the fleet numbers, it’s clear that 777-9’s will be taking over the “long and heavy” routes of the 747-400’s – whilst adding capacity – whilst the A350-900’s will be very mixed use, and fit into A340 routes as needed.

The 777-9 will be the first Boeing 777 family aircraft that will work directly for Lufthansa. The Lufthansa group has ordered Swiss has some 777-300ERs, whilst the A350-900 is still in test and development phase.

A bold long term move by Lufthansa, which should please a lot of customers provided they’re not squeezed in too tightly into the planes..