News
Lufthansa considers more A350s, fewer B777Xs
June 9th 2017
Germany’s Lufthansa thinks it might have ordered too few A350s and too many B777Xs, Bloomberg has reported, citing Lufthansa CEO, Carsten Spohr. Read More »
“I’m not sure if we’ve really ordered enough A350s and possibly too many 777Xs,” Spohr said. “We must now think about either stretching the 777X in a deal with Boeing to let them come in more slowly, or increasing profitability to finance our overdue fleet investments,” he said.
Lufthansa is the launch customer for the B777X. It has 24 on firm order and 14 options for the new Boeing twin aisle with first delivery on track for entry into service in 2020. It also ordered 25 firm A350-900s, plus 30 options.
The A350s are scheduled to replace Lufthansa’s 18 A340-600s. The airline now has three A350s in service from Munich to Delhi, Mumbai and Boston. Orient Aviation understands that Lufthansa is planning to roster the A350 on routes from Munich to Hong Kong and Seoul from the fourth quarter.
Lufthansa’s potential order book revision is tell-tale for oversaturation in the widebody segment.
In April, Boeing stoked speculation there was a falloff in appetite for wide bodies when it reduced the standard three-class layout for the B777-9X to 349 passengers. The change aligned the initially 400-plus-seater B777X closer to the 366-seat A350-1000 variant.
Lufthansa configures its A350s with 293 seats in a three-class configuration featuring business, premium economy and economy class seating. Ordering more A350s versus fewer B777Xs would result in 16% less capacity per aircraft. At list prices, the A350-900 is approximately US$100 million cheaper than the B777X.
The Bloomberg report also said Lufthansa was considering an unspecified number of A350s to be assigned to its budget operator, Eurowings.
