Lufthansa To Start Boeing 787 Commercial Services

FRANKFURT—Lufthansa expects to take delivery of a second Boeing 787-9 before the end of the year, now that it is about to introduce its first into revenue service.

Lufthansa will initially use the 294-seat aircraft on three daily roundtrips between its hubs in Frankfurt and Munich, mainly for crew-training. At the beginning of December, the aircraft is to be deployed on long-haul routes for the first time, with Toronto likely to be the first destination. Transatlantic service will not begin until the second 787 arrives.

The airline has a total of 32 787-9s on firm order. The first five of those were originally built for Hainan Airlines but never delivered because of the Chinese carrier’s financial difficulties. Lufthansa took over the order as part of a compensation deal with Boeing that sought to mitigate the long delay to 777-9 deliveries. 

The initial five 787s are powered by General Electric GEnx-1B engines, whereas the 27 that are part of its original order will be equipped with Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 powerplants. Lufthansa does have some GE engine commonality given that another version of the GEnx engine powers its fleet of 19 747-8s.

The first aircraft under Lufthansa’s original order is to arrive in mid-2023. The five additional 787s provide the airline with much-needed additional lift as management rebuilds Lufthansa’s long-haul network post-pandemic. However, it is not clear for how long the five 787s will stay in its fleet. Other carriers within the Lufthansa Group—such as Austrian Airlines, Edelweiss Air, Eurowings Discover and Swiss International Air Lines—are also seeking new long-haul aircraft.

According to Boeing Commercial Aircraft President and CEO Stan Deal, Lufthansa will now receive its first of 20 777-9s on firm order in early 2025—five years later than initially planned. “We hope we will be better than that,” Deal added at a Lufthansa event Oct. 14 in Frankfurt. Lufthansa Group CEO Carsten Spohr said the silver lining to the delays in Boeing and Airbus deliveries is that there is less chance of market overcapacity in the coming years.

Lufthansa Group expects to take delivery of around 200 aircraft before 2030, 80 of which are going to Lufthansa German Airlines, the core brand. At the same time, that carrier is phasing out aging aircraft, among them a large number of first-generation Airbus A320s and an Airbus A340 fleet. “We want to retire the A340s as soon as possible,” Lufthansa German Airlines CEO Jens Ritter said. However, the delay of the 777-9 means a number of those will stay until 2025.

The company also announced details of its future first-class and business-class products. A new business-class seat will be introduced on the 787 fleet in mid-2023, and a new first-class cabin to the A350s from the end of 2023.