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Lufthansa has got a fine nose for sourcing aircraft at favorable prices. This time, it has secured four former LATAM Airbus A350-900s from Deucalion Aviation Limited that have been on sale since late 2020/early 2021. The aircraft are currently in storage in Victorville (California), but will be delivered to the airline before the end of the year.
LATAM Brasil operated a fleet of thirteen A350-900s but decided during the company-wide Chapter 11 restructuring that it would phase them out. Nine aircraft have jumped ship to LATAM’s shareholder Delta Air Lines. Three other A350s that are reportedly owned by the Bank of Utah plus another one owned by the Wilmington Trust Company entered deep storage in Victorville.
UK-based asset management and finance company Deucalion, which also owns three former Vietnam Airlines A350-900s, subsequently sold the aircraft to Lufthansa. Negotiations had been ongoing for some two months.
21 A350s in service
Lufthansa currently operates 21 A350-900s, including four aircraft that it sourced from Philippine Airlines when that airline entered restructuring. Airbus data show that the German airline has placed orders for fifty A350-900s, but the airline itself says it has orders for 28. Five will be for subsidiary SWISS for delivery from 2025. In March, Lufthansa announced an order for five A350-900s and ten A350-1000s. These aircraft will be delivered from 2026.
The German carrier also sourced five Boeing 787-9s that were originally for Hainan Airlines. The fifth joined in March, but they will be transferred to Austrian Airlines before the summer of 2024. Austrian will take another five newly-built Dreamliners through 2028.
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