Lufthansa and Airbus mark delivery of 600th Lufthansa aircraft at Airbus’s Hamburg-Finkenwerder site

The delivery to Lufthansa of its first Airbus A300B2 on February 9, 1976 laid the foundation for a strong partnership within European civil aviation that has now extended almost 50 years. With more than ten different Airbus aircraft types supplied since then to almost every air operator in the Lufthansa Group, today saw the 600th such aircraft – an Airbus A321neo – handed over to Lufthansa in a formal ceremony at Airbus’s Hamburg-Finkenwerder site.

Four-time launching customer and the third-biggest A350 customer

600th Lufthansa aircraft formally named ‘Münster’

Special livery for the milestone A321neo unveiled in delivery ceremony at   Hamburg-Finkenwerder

Carsten Spohr, Chairman of the Lufthansa Group Executive Board:  “Lufthansa and Airbus are united by a very special partnership. Ever since Airbus’s creation, we have enjoyed close and trusting collaborations on a wide range of research projects and new developments. Lufthansa has also served no fewer than four times as Airbus’s launching customer for a new aircraft type, most recently for the A320neo family that is proving such a success. Lufthansa has ordered every family of aircraft that Airbus has developed over the past five decades. And more than 90 per cent of the 600 Airbuses that we have taken delivery of during that time are still in Lufthansa Group service today. We also wish to welcome our 700th Airbus to our fleet as part of Lufthansa’s centennial celebrations in 2026.”

Guillaume Faury, Airbus CEO:  “Lufthansa and Airbus have been partners ever since we delivered the first Lufthansa A300 back in February 1976. Since then, Lufthansa has taken delivery of an Airbus aircraft an average of every month – 600 of them in almost 50 years! No other airline group has received more of our aircraft to date. My particular thanks, on behalf of everyone at Airbus, go to all the teams at Lufthansa for all their confidence and trust. We look forward to the next 50 years of our partnership and our shared commitment to the goal of sustainable air travel.”

The story to date

Lufthansa signed its first purchase agreement with Airbus for three A300B2s in 1975 and received its first such aircraft from Europe’s new manufacturer seven months later on February 9, 1976. Subsequent years saw the first deliveries of further Airbus types: the A310 in 1983, followed by the A300-600 in 1987. The first Airbus A320 to join the Lufthansa fleet was delivered in October 1989. Over 370 aircraft of the A320 family are in service today with the various airlines of the Lufthansa Group. The first A340 followed in 1993; and just one year later the Lufthansa Airbus fleet passed the 100-aircraft mark. The A330 followed in 2004; and in 2010 the A380 – the world’s largest passenger aircraft – joined the Lufthansa long-haul fleet.

Lufthansa has also served as launching customer for a new Airbus type on four occasions to date: for the A310, the A340, the A220 and – in 2016 –A320neo. Not only the Airbus A320 family is a cornerstone of today’s Lufthansa fleet: the A350-900, which first arrived in 2016, has also become a key component in the Lufthansa long-haul fleet, and the Lufthansa Group is the world’s third-biggest A350 customer.

600th Airbus named ‘Münster’

The 600th Airbus aircraft to be delivered to Lufthansa, which bears the registration D-AIEQ, is an Airbus A321neo. Seating 215 passengers, the A321neo is a state-of-the-art and fuel-efficient short- and medium-haul twinjet that has been in Lufthansa service since 2019. D-AIEQ has been named ‘Münster’ after the German city.

Partners in sustainability, too

Lufthansa and Airbus attach particular importance to their collaborations on the sustainability and the research & development fronts. Over the last three decades, the Lufthansa Group has equipped several of its long-haul Airbus aircraft with instruments to conduct climate and weather research. In addition to three such Airbus jets that are presently gathering climate-related data for scientific purposes, Lufthansa is also working with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology on a world-first project to convert a Lufthansa Airbus A350-900 into a research aircraft.

Lufthansa performed its longest non-stop flight to date in 2021 when it flew one of its Airbus A350-900s from Hamburg to Mount Pleasant on the Falkland Islands on behalf of the Alfred Wegener Institute. The same year also saw a Lufthansa A350-900 converted into a climate research aircraft for the CARIBIC Project.

Back in 2011 Lufthansa was the first airline to trial biofuel in its daily flight operations. For some six months, a Lufthansa Airbus A321 was operated on the Hamburg-Frankfurt route with one of its two engines powered with a fuel blend consisting 50% of biosynthetic kerosene. In the same year Lufthansa teamed up with the Forschungszentrum Jülich to conduct a new type of long-term climate research study using scheduled air services to monitor the Earth’s atmosphere. As part of this IAGOS research project, specially developed instruments were installed aboard a Lufthansa Airbus A340-300 to collect trace elements from the atmosphere in the course of the aircraft’s regular flight operations.

The Lufthansa Group purchases four additional ultra-modern Airbus A350-900 long-haul aircraft. The aircraft will be acquired from Deucalion Aviation Limited and delivered to the Group still this year.

Lufthansa currently operates 21 Airbus A350-900s and has ordered five more A350-900s and ten A350-1000s as recently as March 2023. In total, Lufthansa holds 38 firm orders for this highly efficient Airbus long-haul aircraft, making it the world's third-largest Airbus A350 customer.

Edelweiss takes over an Airbus A340 from Swiss International Air Lines for long-haul routes....

The leading leisure travel airline in Switzerland, Edelweiss is to take over an Airbus A340 from sister airline Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS). The aircraft is to be deployed from July 2023. Edelweiss' long-haul fleet will consist of five Airbus A340s from July 2023 onwards.

The Airbus A340 with the registration HB-JMC comes from the SWISS fleet. Planning work is currently underway for the upcoming modifications to the aircraft's cabin. The aircraft will be operated in the familiar Edelweiss livery.

Bernd Bauer, CEO of Edelweiss: "I am delighted that we will be able to expand our long-haul fleet again from summer 2023. The additional Airbus A340s will enable us to meet the increasing demand for flights to our long-haul holiday destinations."

In addition to the Airbus A340s, Edelweiss currently operates twelve Airbus A320s on short- and medium-haul routes. Edelweiss is a sister company of Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) and a member of the Lufthansa Group.

More passengers flew with Edelweiss in July 2022 - higher than pre-pandemic levels

Lufthansa reactivating some Airbus A340s as it looks to boost first class offering from Munich

Apparently, Munich Airport is Europe’s only 5-star hub and has been super popular for Lufthansa's more wealthy passengers. It is the gateway to Bavaria, as well as a hub to the world for the German carrier.  Due to increased demand, Lufthansa is bucking the trend in the industry to sink to the bottom, by reintroducing first class -  so much so that it will reactivate fice of its stored Airbus A340 aircraft featuring the premium cabin. 

Reactivation of five Airbus A340-600 offering First Class

Airbus A350-900s to offer First Class from summer 2023

Now as the global travel industry is returning to prior levels of activity, Lufthansa is strengthening its premium services from Munich Airport and will again offer First Class on selected routes. This means Lufthansa is temporarily reactivating five Airbus long haul A340-600 aircraft with four flight classes, including the award-winning First Class with eight seats.

Commencing in summer 2022, the A340-600 will fly from Munich primarily to North American and Asian destinations. The decision to reactivate these aircraft is due to growing premium demand, for business as well as leisure travel.

In late summer 2023, the first Airbus A350-900, offering First Class, will join the fleet and take off from Munich, bolstering the premium offering at Lufthansa’s 5-star hub.

Lufthansa to send all Airbus A380s to storage............Restructuring see's deeper cuts

The outlook for international air traffic has significantly worsened in recent weeks. With the summer travel season coming to an end, passenger and booking figures are declining again, after slight signs of recovery were still evident in July and    August. In view of these developments, the Executive Board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG approved the third package within the Group-wide "ReNew" restructuring program today and informed the Supervisory Board accordingly.

In detail, the Executive Board adopted the following resolutions:

The capacity outlook for the passenger airlines will be significantly revised; the previous assumption that an average production level of 50 percent of the previous year's value would be reached in the fourth quarter of the year no longer seems realistic. If the current trend continues, the available seat kilometres will probably only be in a range between 20 and 30 percent, compared to the previous year.

The medium term fleet planning will be adjusted and currently foresees  a permanent, Group-wide capacity reduction of 150 aircraft by the middle of this decade (starting point is the Group fleet including wet-leased aircraft).

In addition to the fleet changes already communicated, the following decisions have been made: After six Airbus A380s were finally taken out of service in the spring, the remaining eight A380s and ten A340-600s, which were previously intended for flight service, will be transferred to long-term storage and removed from planning. These aircraft will only be reactivated in the event of an unexpectedly rapid market recovery. In addition, the remaining seven Airbus A340-600s will be permanently decommissioned.

Iberia saying goodbye to the Airbus A340

Photo Iberia

At an airline like Iberia, with more than 90 years of history, saying goodbye to a model of aircraft is always a bittersweet experience. Bitter because we’ve been through a lot together and we always look back nostalgically on the good times we’ve had together, but sweet because it means a more modern fleet will take over to offer passengers a better flying experience, as is happening with the Airbus A350s that Iberia is bringing into service, a new generation that’s much more efficient, sustainable, and technologically advanced.

It was just over two weeks ago that an Iberia Airbus A340 made its last scheduled flight, when on 1 August the A340-600 christened Santiago Ramón y Cajal flew under captain Víctor Alegre from Quito to Madrid with nearly 300 passengers on board. It was a turning point we’d like to mark by looking back at some of the highlights of the A340’s history with us.

Lufthansa decommissions A340-600 fleet.....at least for a little while

Lufthansa will temporarily decommission the entire Airbus A340-600 fleet.

Lufthansa Airbus A340's heading to rest under the Spanish sun.                                      Photo Lufthansa

The German carrier Lufthansa has confirmed that it will decommission its entire fleet of Airbus A340-600 aircraft - at least for a little while.  It has already been flown three of this four-engined long-haul beauties to Teruel, in northeastern Spain. Teruel Airport is located between Zaragoza and Valencia in the northeast of Spain. With around 240 days of sunshine a year and little rainfall, the region is particularly suitable for sending aircraft that are temporarily surplus to requirements. It is also a lot cheaper to park large aircraft there than almost all German or other local airports. Plus, there is a maintenance base there which can easily send these aircraft off to sleep and awaken them again when needed.

Lufthansa plans to transfer the entire A340-600 fleet, equaling 17 aircraft, to Teruel where they will be decommissioned over the next 2-3 months. These aircraft, the airline estimates will not be operating within its regular scheduled services for at least the next one to one and a half years. 

A decision on the future use of the aircraft or a possible reactivation of a maximum of ten aircraft will be taken at a later stage in time. 

Photo Lufthansa

Infected Antarctic cruise passengers return to Australia on Hi Fly A340-300

Photo James Ross/AAP Image via AP

More than 100 Australian and New Zealand passengers of the Antarctic cruise ship the Greg Mortimer, most of whom infected by the coronavirus, arrived in Melbourne early Sunday on an Airbus A340 flight from Uruguay.

The plane with 112 passengers, including 96 Australians, was boarded immediately after arrival by medical staff in hazmat suits. Thirteen of 16 New Zealanders were transferred to a charter flight home.

Major restructuring and downsizing for the Lufthansa Group an omen of things to come for the European aviation industry

Six A380s are being axed from the Lufthansa fleet.                                                                              Photo Airbus

With the coronavirus COVID-19 crisis, showing no real signs of slowing in Europe, one of the unions biggest airline groups has released details of a drastic initial downsizing.

The Executive Board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG does not expect the aviation industry to return to pre-coronavirus (PC) crisis levels very quickly and with that in mind, it has decided to instigate an initial round of downsizing.

This major downsizing will affect almost all flight operations of the Lufthansa Group and is perhaps an omen of what is to come from carriers around the world.

The tragic news for fans of the double-decker A380 is that the airline will withdraw six of them immediately and they will be decommissioned and offered for sale.  They were,  prior to coronavirus (PC) scheduled to be removed from service and up for sale to Airbus in 2022 anyway.

Lufthansa German Airlines boosts its service between Shanghai and Europe by deploying A380

Lufthansa German Airlines boosts its service between Shanghai and Europe by deploying A380

Lufthansa German Airlines to operate twice daily A380 from Frankfurt and Munich to Shanghai in summer 2020 plus an A340-600 from Frankfurt / overall 10 per cent capacity increase to and from China

Earlier this week the A380 inaugural flight from Munich to Shanghai with flight number LH726 arrived successfully at Shanghai Pudong International Airport at 1607 local time on 2nd of January.  

Lufthansa German Airlines is upgrading its service between Shanghai and Munich with the deployment of A380-800. By replacing A340-600, the capacity of Shanghai-Munich route is increasing by about 230 seats per flight. Overall, the capacity to Shanghai is increased by 10 percent. As of summer schedule 2020, Lufthansa will be operating twice daily A380-800 flights from its hubs Frankfurt and Munich to Shanghai and will add an additional A340-600 from Frankfurt serving the Chinese metropolis.

Virgin to keep the A340 flying for longer.

A lack of spares for Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines that power the Boeing 787's have meant that Virgin Atlantic has been forced to defer its planned retirement of the four-engined wonder - the Airbus A340.

According to FlightGlobal a Norwegian Boeing 787 suffered an uncontained engine failure in Italy in August, which lead to a number of Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines being pulled out of the rotating pool and thus caused a shortage of powerplants and parts.

Lufthansa flies directly to Ottawa for the first time

Photo Lufthansa

Starting from 16 May 2020, Lufthansa for the first time will be including the Canadian capital Ottawa in its flight schedule from Frankfurt.  Ottawa is located in southeastern Canada and is a popular destination for both tourists and business travellers.

From Germany's largest hub, Lufthansa will depart for the North American destination five times a week - on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. The flight LH472 will leave Frankfurt at 1.45 p.m. and arrive at its destination at 4.05 p.m. local time. The return flight LH473 will depart Ottawa at 5.50 p.m. and arrive in Frankfurt at 7.15 a.m. the next day. An Airbus A340-300 with a total of 279 seats on board will carry out the flight. The booking classes are Business Class, Premium Economy Class and Economy Class.

Second daily flight from Frankfurt to Chicago from Lufthansa

Due to high demand, Lufthansa will be offering its second daily flight from Frankfurt to Chicago O’Hare International Airport in winter 2019/20 for the first time. Together with the joint venture partner United Airlines, a total of four daily flights will be offered. The Airbus A340 operated under flight number 432 is scheduled to take off from Frankfurt at 4:45 p.m. and arrive in “The Windy City”, on Lake Michigan, almost 10 hours later at 7:25 p.m. local time, local time. From Chicago, United Airlines offers connections to 155 destinations in North America. The return flight is set for 22:55 in the evening, landing in Frankfurt at 13:35 the following day.

Let's get cosy with Cosy Joon

The airline designed for millennials from Air France that's been in operation since December 2017, has introduced something called Cosy Joon, which is especially for families with young kids.

The airline has already carried more than three million customers in Europe and worldwide from its  Paris-Charles de Gaulle base has come up with this brand new service that uses a few rows of modular seats aboard its Airbus A340 long-haul jets that can transform into a bed or play area for small children.

In some rows of four seats on the Joon Airbus A340, two adjacent seats can now be transformed into a play area or a cosy bed for up to two children. This innovative way of making spaces involves a member of Joon's cabin crew converting the seat headrest where the child is sitting into an additional seat base which fills the space between the rows of seats.  That way, it gives the little folk an area of approximately 105 x 76 cm on two adjacent seats. An overlay mattress and a seat belt extension is also provided by the crew.

Air Belgium puts scheduled flights on hold

It is perhaps an expected move, but fledgeling airline Air Belgium has decided to call a halt, at least temporarily, to its services to Hong Kong with almost immediate effect.

Many in the industry have questioned the viability of the new start-up airline, with both its choice of aircraft and route selection. Despite offering a good in-flight product the airline hasn't seen anywhere near enough passengers to be a commercial success. 

The airline cited 'non-respect of contractual terms by its major commercial partner regarding tariffs and load factor' for the curtailment of its scheduled operations.  The airline is, we're told looking at other avenues for resuming the flights to Hong Kong, however, in the meantime it will continue to wet lease its Airbus A340 aircraft to other carriers, such as British Airways. 

In the latest news from the carrier, it says it will continue to focus on launching its air service to Mainland China, with destinations such as Zhengzhou. The airline isn't letting any staff go at this stage as all the cabin and flight crew are needed for the wet leasing operations and the airline is in the process of contacting affected passengers it said.  

Air Belgium also says it is committed to operations from Charleroi Airport, "We also would like to make clear that our decision to operate scheduled air services from Brussels Charleroi airport is not questioned and will be maintained. Customers satisfaction and the convenience has been validated by massive positive feedback and our strategy to operate from Charleroi is to remain." its latest statement advised.

(Photo Air Belgium / Benjamin Brolet)

Iberia's EC-LEU Airbus A340 returns to Madrid for evaluation

The Airbus A340-600 of Iberia that was damaged in a hard and bouncing landing at Quito, has been flown back to madrid for further evaluation as the airline considers whether it can go back into passenger service.

Back on 11th August whilst attempting to land in Quito during poor weather conditions the crew made a hard landing, which they then aborted and performed a go-around. They then made a second approach, however, one of the tyres was found to have burst upon landing and some of the breaking systems was leaking hydraulic fluid.

Iberia confirms the nine-year old aircraft, registration EC-LEU, returned to Madrid on the 27th of last month and are unsure if and when the aircraft can go back into service. 

Goodbye A340

We've seen a raft of airlines retiring certain aircraft types over the last few months, this last week has been no exception. This occasion it was the turn of Finnair saying a final farewell and Näkemiin to the four-engines long-haul classy lady, the Airbus A340.

The A340 has enjoyed a long history with the Finnish carrier and allowed them to open up log routes to Asia and whilst the A340 carries a larger load than its twin-engine sister aircraft A330, it also consumes more fuel and therefore is more expensive to operate.

Finnair has now given up all the seven of its A340-300 aeroplanes it had in its fleet and now been replaced with the new sexy sleek and shiny A350. Finnair has ordered a total of 19 of the new Airbus A350 XWB aircraft from the European manufacturer and so far has taken delivery of 11 aircraft.

Finnair’s last A340 aircraft (LQE) swayed its white wings as a goodbye when it took off towards its new home Tarbes and back to Airbus’s ownership. A special thank you celebration was held for the employees to mark the occasion and the retirement of the beauty. 

It is, in the words of Finnair, the end of an era. 

An End Of Era farewell video follows. -

Manila - Auckland Non-Stop For Philippine Airlines

Philippine Airlines will be making a major change on flights to New Zealand's 'City of Sails from December this year.  The airline is to start a direct non-stop flight to Auckland from Manila from 6th December on on of its Airbus A340 aircraft. 

The non-stop service will operate three times a week - Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday - departing Manila at 11.15pm, arriving Auckland at 2.05pm local time the following day.  The return leaves Auckland every Friday, Saturday and Tuesday at 12.30 local time and touches down in Manila at 5.45am.