Lufthansa welcomes its 600th Airbus, an A321neo (video)

2023-05-25 07:00:00

The airline company Lufthansa took possession of his 600th European aircraftmore than any other Airbus customer worldwide.

The German national company marked on May 24, 2023 the delivery of its 600th Airbus in the facilities of the latter in Hamburg-Finkenwerderthe fuselage of theA321neo of 215 seats registered D-AIEQ and baptized “Münster” bearing the number 600. The delivery to Lufthansa of its first Airbus A300B2 on February 9, 1976 “has laid the foundations for a solid partnership within European civil aviation, which has now lasted for almost 50 years”, underlines its press release. More than ten different types of Airbus aircraft have since been supplied to almost all of the group’s airline operators.

Lufthansa has signed its first contract of purchase with Airbus for three A300B2 in 1975 and received its first aircraft of this type from the new European manufacturer seven months later. The following years saw the first deliveries of other Airbus types: theA310 in 1983, followed by theA300-600 in 1987. The first Airbus A320 to join the Lufthansa fleet was delivered in October 1989; more than 370 aircraft from the single-aisle family are currently in service with the group’s various airlines. The first A340 followed in 1993; and just a year later, Lufthansa’s Airbus fleet passed the 100 aircraft mark. I’A330 followed in 2004; and in 2010, theA380 joined Lufthansa’s long-haul fleet.

The company of Star Alliance also served as launch client for a new type of Airbus on four occasions to date: for theA310l’A340l’A220 and in 2016 theA320neo. The Airbus A320 family “is not the only cornerstone of Lufthansa’s current fleet”: theA350-900which first arrived in 2016, has also become a key part of Lufthansa’s long-haul fleet, with the group now the world’s third-largest A350 customer.

Carsten Spohr, Chairman of the Lufthansa Group Management Board, said: Lufthansa and Airbus are united by a very special partnership. Since the creation of Airbus, we have benefited from close and trusted collaborations on a wide range of research projects and new developments. Lufthansa has also served as Airbus’ launch customer for a new aircraft type no less than four times, most recently for the successful A320neo family. “. Lufthansa has ordered all aircraft families developed by Airbus over the past five decades. And more than 90 percent of the 600 Airbuses we took delivery of during that time are still in service with the Lufthansa Group today. We would also like to welcome our 700e Airbus in our fleet as part of the celebrations of the centenary of Lufthansa in 2026 “, he concluded.

Guillaume Faury, Executive Chairman of Airbus, recalls for his part that Lufthansa and the European aircraft manufacturer ” have been partners since we delivered the first Lufthansa A300 in February 1976. Since then, Lufthansa has taken delivery of an Airbus aircraft on average every month – 600 in almost 50 years! No other air group has received more of our aircraft to date. My special thanks, on behalf of everyone at Airbus, go to all Lufthansa teams for their trust. We look forward to the next 50 years of our partnership and shared commitment to the goal of sustainable air transport. ».

©Lufthansa

Lufthansa and Airbus attach particular importance to their cooperation in the field of sustainable development and of research and development. Over the past three decades, the Lufthansa Group has equipped several of its long-haul Airbus aircraft with instruments to perform climate and weather research. In addition to three such Airbus aircraft currently collecting climate-related data for scientific purposes, Lufthansa is also working with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology on a worldwide project to convert a Lufthansa Airbus A350-900 into an aircraft. of research.

Lufthansa completed its longest nonstop flight to date in 2021 when it flew one of its A350-900s from Hamburg to Mount Pleasant on the Falkland Islands on behalf of the Alfred Wegener Institute. In the same year, a Lufthansa A350-900 was also converted into a climate research aircraft for the CARIBIC project.

In 2011, Lufthansa was the first airline to test the biofuel in its daily flight operations: for about six months, an A321 was operated on the Hamburg-Frankfurt route with one of its two engines powered by a fuel mixture composed of 50% biosynthetic kerosene. In the same year, Lufthansa joined forces with the Forschungszentrum Jülich to conduct a new type of study of long-term climate research using scheduled air services to monitor the Earth’s atmosphere. As part of this IAGOS research project, specially developed instruments were installed on board a Lufthansa A340-300 to collect trace elements from the atmosphere during regular flight operations of the aircraft.

For the 600th delivery of @Airbusour colleagues from @LHTechnik have made the new A321neo particularly beautiful ????. With this special livery, our aircraft, christened “Münster”, will be flying from Frankfurt throughout Europe. ✈️ #A321neo #AviationMaintenanceTechnicianDay pic.twitter.com/DHmnlfilRr

— Lufthansa News (@lufthansaNews) May 24, 2023