Lufthansa's decision to renew its fleet comes immediately after the airline unveiled its new Allegris cabin concept in Berlin. In addition, the Group's Supervisory Board extended Carsten Spohr's term as CEO for another five years.
So, the Lufthansa Group has approved the following contracts for new aircraft:
5 Airbus A350-900;
10 Airbus A350-1000;
7 Boeing 787 -9.
Today's deal is valued at about $7.5 billion. However, this is not the end of the matter: the group says it is in talks to acquire more wide-body aircraft in the very near future. Most likely, Lufthansa intercept them from other carriers. For example, its first Boeing was originally to go to Hainan Airlines and then to Vistara.
The group is currently awaiting delivery of 108 long-haul aircraft on previous orders, including the Airbus A350, Boeing 787 and Boeing 777X. A significant part of them will go to Lufthansa itself, the rest — to other group carriers.
According to Lufthansa management, the main purpose of today's order is to replace older aircraft, not expand the fleet. This is sad news for all fans of large four-engine aircraft. Such a fate awaits the Boeing 747–400, Airbus A340-300, in fact, as well as the Airbus A330-200, Boeing 767–300 and Boeing 777–200.
The carrier entered the pandemic with a wide-body fleet, by 50 percent consisting of four-seater liners. The goal now is to retire these six types in the “medium term” to less than 15 percent.
However, it is unlikely that the Boeing 747–8 will disappear any time soon given that their average the age is less than ten years.
Another interesting fact is that Lufthansa has never mentioned the decommissioning of the Airbus A380. Although the carrier was previously eager to retire the entire fleet, three Superjumbo should return to the sky this summer, flying overseas to the United States.
On the other hand, the lack of mention of the Airbus A380 in the reports may indicate only that the airline already considers this type de facto decommissioned.
