Lufthansa Group Airbus A350-900
Lufthansa Group has ordered an additional ten Airbus A350-900s and ten Boeing 787-9s. The Supervisory Board approved the order on Monday, which follows an earlier decision by the Executive Board. Deliveries are scheduled between 2032 and 2034.
The aircraft are for the replacement of older aircraft, but the group hasn’t decided yet which airline will get them. “The decision regarding which airline and which hub the ordered aircraft will be deployed at will be made at a later date”, Lufthansa says in a media statement. The latest order brings Lufthansa Group’s unfilled orders to 232 aircraft, including 107 widebodies.
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At the end of April, Lufthansa Airlines had taken delivery of 29 A350-900s out of 50 on order. The latest order brings this to 60. The airline also has 15 A350-1000s on order, with the first in an advanced stage of final assembly. The group has allocated another nine A350-900s to its leisure subsidiary, Discover Airlines, on top of the four aircraft scheduled for delivery from 2027.
Lufthansa Group also had unfilled orders for 23 Boeing 787-9s. This now becomes 33. The parent airline is operating 12, while Austrian Airlines took delivery of its third aircraft in April. Another two will follow before the end of the year. Austrian’s long-haul fleet will consist of 12 Dreamliners by 2028/2029. No engine selection has been announced, but the two operators use both the General Electric GEnx-1B and Rolls-Royce Trent 1000, including the latest version, 1000XE.
Also in the backlog are 27 Boeing 777-9 for Lufthansa Airlines. The first production aircraft made its first 3-hour 27-minute flight on May 7. Delivery depends on the certification of the aircraft, but following multiple delays, Lufthansa is taking a cautious approach and has included the 777-9 in its schedule only from the 2027 summer season.
SWISS is operating two A350-900s out of five on order since December 2022. In 2024, COO Oliver Buchhofer said that discussions about additional aircraft to replace the 14 A330-300s were at an early stage. It seems likely that SWISS will get some of the newly ordered A350s.
Subsidiary Edelweiss flies a fleet of four A350-900s, but these were all sourced from LATAM Airlines. Edelweiss is retrofitting them with a new cabin, with the first aircraft due in December. Another two pre-owned A350s will join Edelweiss through 2027.
Another potential candidate for more A350-900s is ITA Airways, which has a fleet of six leased aircraft. These were sourced before Lufthansa Group took a 41 percent minority share. In June, the German group has a call on an option to acquire another 49 percent, but a spokesperson told AirInsight last week that a decision has not been taken. ITA wants to grow its long-haul network out of Rome Fiumicino, but if this requires additional A350s or more A330-900s remains to be seen.
Lufthansa Group is having its Annual General Meeting on Tuesday.
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