Lufthansa’s first Airbus A350 to be based in Munich

Lufthansa Group will base its first Airbus A350-900 at its second major hub in Munich from 2016, executive board chairman and CEO Carsten Spohr told ATW in Frankfurt.  
                                                               
“This goes hand-in-hand with the opening of our terminal extension, the new satellite facility at Munich Airport,” he said.

The Terminal 2 expansion project started in April 2012. The €650 million ($856.8 million) investment will be shared 60:40 between airport owners FMG and Lufthansa.

In September 2013, Lufthansa ordered 34 Boeing 777-9Xs and 25 A350-900s plus 30 options.

Lufthansa Group CFO Simone Menne confirmed to ATW that two A350-900s are expected in 2016, with five more due to arrive one year later. “In 2017 we expect to have seven A350s in our fleet,” he said, pointing out the company is undergoing “the biggest fleet improvement of Lufthansa’s 60-year history.”

“By 2025, we are due to take delivery of 272 brand-new aircraft at a list price of about €38 billion,” Spohr said, adding that the supervisory board on Wednesday approved nine additional aircraft, including three additional Boeing 777-300ERs for Swiss International Air Lines.

Swiss expects delivery of the first of six of the type next year; it now has nine on order.

Lufthansa will add five new long-haul destinations during 2015—a total of 15 weekly flights—from Frankfurt to Tampa, Cancun, Panama City, Male and Mauritius.

“All in all, we will not operate anymore [than] 400 aircraft during the summer season; we have slightly reduced the number to 395 aircraft,” Spohr said.

“We will reduce flights but increase capacity by using bigger aircraft,” according to Menne.
The entire Lufthansa Group will operate 621 aircraft during the summer of 2015.

The Group includes Austrian Airlines, Swiss International Air Lines, Brussels Airlines, Lufthansa Cargo, Italy’s Air Dolomiti and Switzerland-based Edelweiss Air.

(Kurt Hofmann - ATWOnline News)