Last week Lufthansa revealed their plans to retire the last of their Boeing 737s that are still in service. If plans go to form, the last 737 will be removed from the fleet in October of this year, marking the end of a 48 year era. Over these 48 years, 155 737s have been in the LH fleet and 7 still serve today. Lufthansa first began using the 737 back on February 10, 1968.
This announcement is part of a larger strategy that has the Lufthansa Group retiring their aging aircraft. SWISS and Austrian are also in the midst of retiring some of their vintage birds including the Fokker family by Austrian and the Avro Regional Jet by SWISS.
As these birds are retired, they’ll be replaced by new and far more efficient Airbus narrow body aircraft helping improve the passenger experience on short and medium haul routes.
I had the chance to witness the retirement of one of these 737s when D-ABIB was brought to Lufthansa Technik Component Services in Tulsa, Oklahoma. For an avgeek, it’s a bit of a bittersweet moment to see an aircraft taken out of the fleet.
D-ABIB shortly after arriving in Tulsa for her retirement….
