Lufthansa Group adds five A350-1000s to its order
December 21, 2024
The Lufthansa Group is already a significant customer for the Airbus A350, having ordered 75 A350-900s and fifteen A350-1000s, making the group one of the largest A350 customers worldwide.
Currently, 28 A350-900s are already in scheduled service, all with Lufthansa. Some 47 more are to be delivered by 2031. Other Lufthansa Group airlines in the Group that will fly the type are Edelweiss Air (six A350-900s) and Swiss (ten A350-900s). These airlines will launch operations with their new widebodies next year.
The Lufthansa Group ordered ten A350-1000s in March 2023, with deliveries due to start in April 2026. The A350-1000 is 73.8 metres long and offers around 15% more capacity than the A350-900. In the medium term, the highly efficient twin-engine long-haul A350s will replace Lufthansa’s four-engined aircraft type, including the Boeing 747-400, Airbus A340-600 and Airbus A340-300 which are gradually being phased out.
Including the latest A350-1000 order, the Lufthansa Group has ordered 770 aircraft from Airbus throughout its history and says that it is “proud to be the Airbus’ largest customer worldwide.”
With the upcoming integration of ITA Airways in January, the Airbus fleet of Lufthansa Group Airlines will grow by another 100 short- and long-haul aircraft.”
The Lufthansa Group has a current fleet of around 740 commercial aircraft, and is pursuing a long-term fleet strategy focused on premium quality, cost efficiency and emissions reduction. The Lufthansa Group has a total of around 250 new, fuel-saving aircraft on order, including 100 long-haul aircraft.
Compared to their predecessors, the new additions to the Lufthansa Group fleet will consume up to 35% less fuel and emit correspondingly less CO₂. The Lufthansa Group aims to halve its net CO₂ emissions by 2030 (compared to 2019) through reduction and compensation measures, and to be CO₂ neutral by 2050.
Carsten Spohr, Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of Deutsche Lufthansa AG said that: “Today’s order underscores our great confidence in our long-standing, close and successful partnership with Airbus. With the state-of-the-art A350 long-haul jets, we are accelerating the largest fleet modernization the Group has done so far. We are investing more than ever before to make air transport more sustainable, to achieve our CO₂ reduction targets and at the same time offer our customers the highest level of comfort with a first-class travel experience.”
