Five more Airbus A350-1000 aircraft have been added to the Lufthansa Group’s order book, bringing the total to 15.
With Lufthansa, ITA Airways, Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS), and Edelweiss Air, a subsidiary of SWISS, currently operating or awaiting delivery of A350-900 aircraft, the German airline company has not specified which airline will receive the new aircraft.
Expanding A350-1000 order book
According to the Lufthansa Group, it is now one of the biggest buyers of the A350 aircraft family worldwide with its most recent order, bringing its total order book (not backlog) to 75, divided between 60 A350-900 and 15 A350-1000.
Airbus will start delivering the ten A350-1000 aircraft that it acquired in March 2023 in April 2026, while the five A350-1000s will be delivered between 2028 and 2030.
The Lufthansa Group’s chairman and CEO, Carsten Sphor, stated that the group’s faith in its long-standing collaboration with Airbus was reaffirmed by today’s order. The group’s fleet upgrade plan, the greatest in its history, will be accelerated with the help of the cutting-edge A350 aircraft.
“We are investing more than ever before in our history to make air transport more sustainable, to achieve our CO₂ reduction targets and at the same time offer our customers the highest level of comfort with a first-class travel experience.”
The five A350-1000 orders, according to Spoh, have increased the company’s overall Airbus order book to 770 aircraft, making Lufthansa Group the largest global customer of the European aircraft manufacturer.
“With the upcoming integration of ITA Airways in January, the Airbus fleet of Lufthansa Group Airlines will grow by another 100 short- and long-haul aircraft.”
Replacing quad jets
Despite having almost 740 commercial aircraft in its fleet, the Lufthansa Group stressed that it has adopted a long-term fleet plan that is centered on sustainability, cost effectiveness, and quality. It now has 250 aircraft on order, 100 of which are the newest widebodies, thanks to the most recent order.
“In the medium term, the highly efficient twin-engine long-haul jets are slated to replace four-engine aircraft types that are gradually being phased out. These include the Boeing 747-400 , Airbus A340-600, and Airbus A340-300 aircraft types.”
34 A350-900 aircraft are operated by Lufthansa and ITA Airways, which will join the group in January 2025, according to ch-aviation data. Additionally, according to the site’s records, Edelweiss Air and SWISS will each add six and 10 A350-900 aircraft.
The first A350-900, which was at the time in a hanger at Shannon Airport (SNN) in Ireland, will be added to Edelweiss Air’s fleet in the spring of 2025, the airline announced on August 13.
In the meantime, SWISS said on December 5 that it will add its first A350-900 aircraft in the summer of 2025 and that it will treble its incoming fleet from five to 10 aircraft.
A350-1000 sales momentum
In 2024, more airlines have started to choose the A350-1000, which was previously mostly overlooked in favor of its smaller sibling, the A350-900.
At the end of 2023, the A350-900 had 904 gross orders and the A350-1000 had 252 gross orders, indicating a split of 78.2% and 21.79%, according to Airbus orders and delivery filings.
By the end of November, Airbus had acquired 1290 gross orders for the A350 aircraft family, which were divided between 302 purchase agreements for the A350-1000 (23.4%) and 988 purchase agreements for the A350-900 (76.5%). The gap has narrowed, but it is still rather large.
Airbus announced a number of A350 orders throughout December, including two A350-900s from Aircalin, five A350-900 and A350-1000 aircraft from Air India, and, most recently, ten A350-1000s purchased by China Airlines on December 20.
According to its commercial disclosures, Airbus has received 84 and 50 net orders for the A350-900 and A350-1000, respectively, so far this year.