Lufthansa has decided its base for its first Airbus A350 aircraft – and it won’t be Frankfurt – rather it will be Munich.
Lufthansa Airbus A350 – Rendering, Airbus
The first 10 of the A350-900 fleet will be based in Munich, taking over the role of the Airbus A340-600s that currently operates out of the Lufthansa secondary hub from January 2017.
The first destinations earmarked for the A350 fleet include Boston and Delhi.
Lufthansa will be configuring their Airbus A350-900s in a 3 class configuration, featuring Business Class, Premium Economy and Economy – these planes won’t be fitted with First Class:
- 48 Business Class Seats
- 21 Premium Economy Seats
- 224 Economy Class Seats
- = 293 Seats
Lufthansa have orders for 25 of the Airbus A350-900, with the first 10 bound for Munich. The remainder have yet to find a home in the LH Group with their bases and destinations to be decided.
However, with the first ones making inroads on the existing quadjet Airbus A340-600s, this could be a preview of where the airline will operate the type in the longer term.
The interesting thing to watch will be what hard products will be rolled out aboard the Lufthansa’s A350s – if it’s the current versions that are being fitted to the Lufthansa fleet, or something brand new.
We’ll find out soon enough I suspect.
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So, I assume the new Boston flight means a second service by them? They currently fly direct BOS to FRA with 747-8.
Not a new service – they already fly daily MUC-BOS, this will just be a change of equipment when the A350 enters the fleet.
And Chicago two, replacing the a340.
I hope they have a new product with direct aisle access for every seat, but I think it’s more likely that it will be the old product. Lufthansa has never been class-leading when it comes to the business class hard product. They introduced angled-flat seats when the competition was already going flat, and they introduced flat seats but without 100% direct aisle access when the competition was already going that way. Also, there were eight years between the most two generations (the angled-flat seat was introduced beginning in 2004 IIRC, and the flat-bed seats beginning in 2012, and only completed within the past year). So a new product in 2017 would be quite quick.