Lufthansa deploys A350s from Frankfurt following delivery delays
April 1, 2025
Ongoing delivery delays have necessitated a temporary change in strategy for Lufthansa’s A350 deployment, with the type to be deployed from its Frankfurt hub over the coming summer season. Although the airline has not specified which aircraft from its backlog are delayed, Lufthsnsa CEO Jens Ritter states the short-term plan is “closing a gap” and will “offer an improved travel experience from Frankfurt until new long-haul units arrive.
Lufthansa currently has 72 widebodies in its order backlog, comprising 18 787 Dreamliners, 20 777Xs, and 24 further A350s. “Over the next 36 months, Lufthansa is expecting the largest fleet renewal in its history,” clarified Ritter. “By the end of 2027, 61 new aircraft are scheduled to be added to the fleet. This means an average of one new aircraft every few weeks”.
Four A350-900s are already operating from the location, with two more to follow in May and July. With these aircraft serving long-haul routes to Seoul and Shanghai since 30 March, the incoming pair will be utiliised on routes to Denver from 1 May and Seattle from 1 July. Lufthansa also operates 30 A350-900s from Munich, with an additional 14 expected to join the fleet by 2029.
In April 2023, Lufthansa stated it expected to take delivery of “state-of-the-art long-haul aircraft” including the Boeing 787-9 and 777-9 “over the next few years”. However, ongoing 777X certification delays have called this into question, with Ritter revealing in May 2024 that previous 2025 delivery expectations had slipped – indicating that summer 2026 represented a more realistic timeline. In January 2025, Boeing confirmed that Lufthansa (rather than Emirates) would become the launch customer of the upcoming 777-9.
As of December 2024, Lufthansa Group Airlines had a total of 75 A350-900 and A350-1000 aircraft on order, 28 of which were already operational, and 47 more to be delivered by 2031.
