Lufthansa desperately needs A350 to reduce loss
Lufthansa is trying to increase its competitiveness on medium haul, monopoly flight to America by replacing aging 15 years old Airbus A340-600s with their flagship Airbus A350-900XWBs.
Lufthansa will send their A350-941s to Denver and New York from March onwards. They will also use their brand new A359s to fly to New York, Seoul and Vancouver, replacing their A330s and A340s.
Though not confirmed, there have been rumors that Lufthansa is desperately needing the flagship A350s to maintain their customer services. From the photos below, we can clearly see that the A350s offer a much higher comfort than their old, outdated jetliners.
Lufthansa A340 economy without in-flight entertainments
A340 business class with dim lighting and limited recline
Flagship A350 with LED TV and full recline
Award winning A350 economy class with recline angle higher than average airlines
The A350 has space for 293 passengers with 48 seats in Business Class, 21 in Premium Economy and 224 in Economy Class. At just under 18.4 feet wide, the cabin of the new Airbus is more spacious than comparable models of aircraft. Hence, improved cabin pressure during flight, and novel LED lighting system that adjusts with the day and night-time rhythm of the passengers makes increases the competitiveness of A350s over A330/A340/772.
Last year, Lufthansa became the first European airline to receive the prestigious Skytrax 5 star certification. This makes Lufthansa the 10th airline to be holding this award. In celebration, Lufthansa painted an Airbus A320 and a Boeing 747-8 in the "5 Starhansa" livery.
When compared to other International airlines, Lufthansa is lagging behind in their fleet replacement. They are the only airline with the world with 4 aircraft models equipped with 4 engines (A340, A380, 747-400, 747-8). In addition, they are operating 12 McDonnell Douglas MD-11 with average year span of 18.4 years. There are only 7 airlines operating this type of aircraft Lufthansa ranks number 1 in terms of number.
Although quadjets have better performance due to more "excess" thrust which allow them to perform better at hot and high scenarios, thesep lanes require high maintenance cost and the overlap of 747s and A380s are bringing them overcapacity problems (read our analysis for more).
Since June last year, the first of their 23 A340s (D-AIHM) have been ferried to Arizona for storage. The German carrier is replacing the outgoing quadjets with more economical A350-900s of which it has twenty-five on order from Airbus. And as for ultra long haul fleet, the German carrier as placed orders for 20 Boeing 777-9s to replace their Boeing 747-400s.
